FEATURE:

MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGH:
New Hope for Alzheimer’s Sufferers

By GH Medical Reporters

First, the bad news. According to The Memory and Aging Project, published in the current issue of Neurology, most older adults suffer from some form of brain disease. This is true regardless of the presence or absence of dementia (i.e., memory and other cognitive impairments). Led by Dr. Julie A. Schneider of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, the study analyzed 141 older adults. It found that at the time of death only 20 (14.2 percent) were pathology-free.

Schneider notes that individuals with dementia had more than one type of brain disorder, most commonly strokes and Lewy body disease, a condition related to Parkinson’s. More than one disease in the brain significantly increased the likelihood that symptoms of dementia would be present.

‘Older persons can often handle one pathology in their brain,’ Dr Schneider said, ‘but the burden of more than one pathology may tip them over the threshold of clinical dementia,’ She added that the prevention of strokes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, and obesity, ‘are thus likely to significantly decrease the prevalence of dementia.’

However, the good news is that recent medical developments hold out considerable hope. An experimental helmet, for instance, which scientists believe could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease ‘within weeks’ of being used is being tried out. The futuristic-looking headgear was developed by Dr Gordon Dougal, of Virulite, a UK medical-research company. Worn for ten minutes a day, it stimulates the growth of brain cells by bathing them in infra-red light. Dougal claims that the treament, which followed up a study at the University of Sunderland showing that infra-red light reversed memory loss in mice, could undo the symptoms of dementia within a month.
‘Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay,’ Dr Dougal said. ‘This new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it.’

Low level infra-red light is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull. ‘The implications of the research at Sunderland are enormous—so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age, Dougal said.

’We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves. This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions—for the brain, resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance.

’But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?’

The Sunderland study found that exposing middle-aged mice to infrared light for six minutes a day for ten days improved their performance in a three-dimensional maze. In the human trials, scheduled for this summer, Dougal and his colleagues will deploy levels of infra-red that occur naturally in sunlight.

Neuroscientist Paul Chazot, who helped carry out the research, said: ‘The results are completely new—this has never been looked at before.’

An Alzheimer’s Society spokesman said: ‘A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. We look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans.’

In other positive developments it was found that regular walking and the consumption of fish oil appeared to lower the risk of dementia in older adults.

One recent study, also published in Neurology, tracked the exercise habits of 749 healthy Italian men and women 65 and older. After four years, the most-frequent walkers had a 27 percent lower risk of developing vascular dementia than those people who walked the least.

‘It’s important to note that an easy-to-perform moderate activity like walking provided the same cognitive benefits as other, more demanding activities,’ says study-author Dr. Giovanni Ravaglia of University Hospital S. Orsola Malpighi, in Bologna, Italy.

In supporting research, the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that 1,700 US adults over 65 who walked regularly also had a lower dementia risk. Individuals who exercised three or more times a week showed a dementia risk of 13 per 1,000 person-years, while those who walked less often had a risk of 19.7 per 1,000 person-years—an increased risk of nearly 60 percent.

Doctors believe that walking may help because it improves cerebral blood flow and lowers the risk of vascular disease. The Neurology study didn’t directly link exercise and Alzheimer’s, but the authors note that other research indicates a benefit.

The fish-oil analysis found that omega-3 fatty acids, which are plentiful in seafood, might play an important role in preventing Alzheimer’s. The study was carried out by a research team at the University of California, Los Angeles and published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Scientists demonstrated that the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) increases the production of LR11, a protein found at reduced levels in Alzheimer’s patients. LR11 is known to destroy the protein that forms the plaques associated with the disease.

The plaques comprise a protein called beta amyloid, which is toxic to brain cells. Higher levels of LR11 prevent the manufacturing of these poisons.

Researchers tested the effects of DHA by adding it directly to laboratory-grown human and animal neurons. ‘We found that even low doses of DHA increased the levels of LR11 in rat neurons, while dietary DHA increased LR11 in brains of rats or older mice that had been genetically altered to develop Alzheimer’s disease,’ said lead-researcher Greg Cole, Associate Director of UCLA’s Alzheimer Disease Research Center.

Fatty acids such as DHA are essential. The body cannot make them from other sources and must obtain them through diet. Research shows that DHA is the most abundant essential fatty acid in the brain, Cole said. It is especially critical to fetal and infant brain development. Studies also link low levels of DHA in the brain to cognitive impairment and show that lower levels may increase oxidative stress in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.

There is no specific dosage of DHA people should take to prevent Alzheimer’s, but researchers recommend eating more fatty fish or taking a daily supplement. They did not recommend taking DHA to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s.

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