April 21, 2015

Today's Top Alzheimer's News

USA2 SPOTLIGHT 

An April 2015 Scientific American Alzheimer’s Outlook edition highlighted pieces by USA2 co-founder George Vradenburg and USA2 patient advocate Greg O’Brien. According to Vradenburg, “Most importantly, USAgainstAlzheimer’s is hoping to start a conversation about Alzheimer’s and other dementias, to raise consciousness about a health crisis that is creating a soon-to-hit tsunami in this country and around the world. Without a cure or the ability to delay the onset of this debilitating disease, we will all suffer the loss of an extraordinary standard of healthcare in our country—the Medicare/Medicaid system will go bankrupt, our economy will be impacted, and the loss of millions of bright and inspiring Baby Boomers will leave us bereft on so many levels.” 

MUST READS

An April 20, 2015 St. Louis Public Radio article reported that Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) “says that he wants to use his key position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to boost funding for research.” According to the article, “The Republican senator recently became the chairman an Appropriations subcommittee that controls federal funding for the National Institutes of Health. He said during a visit to Washington University’s Alzheimer’s Research Center that he wants to make funding for the agency a priority…With the Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress for the first time during President Barack Obama’s presidency, Blunt’s party will have more power to shape federal spending. He said funding for NIH “doubled” the last time Republican controlled both congressional chambers…Randall Bateman, a professor of neurology at Washington University, said the fact that there’s more interest in fighting Alzheimer’s disease within the federal government “is a huge positive sign for all of us, not just those of us who are in research.””

An April 20, 2015 Michigan Live article reported that Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) plans to get 21st Century Cures bill to President Obama by year's end. According to the article, “Upton, who also recently helped broker a bipartisan Medicare "doc fix" bill that provided a long-term solution for how doctors are reimbursed by Medicare, said he plans to introduce the 21st Century Cures bill in the next few weeks and have it on President Obama's desk by the end of the year. "It's like juggling basketballs," Upton said of working on the two health care initiatives at the same time. DeGette said that while the initiative has already received early bipartisan support, it's also gained "tremendous consensus" from a number of groups, including researchers, students and patient advocacy organizations. So far, no formal opposition has come out against the initiative, which Upton first announced last year. DeGette said the only people currently against the plan are people who don't support the government conducting biomedical research.”

BRAIN HEALTH 

An April 20, 2015 Wall Street Journal article and video segment reported that Rush University Medical Center researchers successfully tested the MIND Diet, a diet designed to reduce the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease. According to the article, “The study, conducted by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, found strict adherence to any of the three diets lessened the chances of getting Alzheimer’s. But only the MIND diet seemed to help counter the disease even when people followed only some of the diet’s recommendations. The research was observational, not randomized or controlled, and therefore isn’t evidence the MIND diet caused a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s. Instead, the research shows there is an association between the two…The MIND diet, which took two years to develop, stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. Researchers modified the Mediterranean and DASH diets based on evidence from animal and human studies looking at nutrition and the brain. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.”

An April 20, 2015 The Dallas Morning News article highlighted ways to keep the brain fit in old age. According to the article, “A committee of medical professionals took a look at this in “Cognitive Aging,” a report (iom.edu\cognitiveaging) issued earlier this month for the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. The report notes that brain health benefits from some of the same habits of exercise and diet that keep the rest of the body healthy. The fatty acids in a nice piece of salmon, for example, can hold off cognitive decline. Adequate sleep, lower stress, social ties and lifelong learning also help counteract cognitive decline. An unhealthy diet, stress, loneliness, lack of exercise and poor sleep can make cognitive aging much worse. That affects a person’s independence and has a major financial impact on society at large because of the cost of both professional and family caregiving.”