Alzheimer's Health Clinics Rensselaer NY

Most people only think of insulin as helping to manage diabetes, but it's now proving to be something of a memory booster as well. A recent study has revealed that insulin can help restore memory and cognition in people affected by Alzheimer's disease.

In the study, conducted by the VA Puget Sound and the University of Washington, researchers delivered daily doses of either 20 IU of insulin, 40 IU of insulin, or a placebo through an intranasal nebulizer to 109 patients. The patients had either Alzheimer's or slight memory impairment. They found that patients who received a low dose of insulin did better on memory tests than patients who received a placebo, and that patients who received a higher dose of insulin were able to function better in their daily activities than those receiving the placebo. They did not, however, show any improvement in their functional abilities.

The team conducted a pilot study on young, healthy people before taking their quest to the Alzheimer's population. In that earlier study, intranasal insulin boosted memory without changing the subjects' glucose or insulin levels, which gave the team hope that delivering insulin through the nose enables it to work directly on the brain, which uses sugar for energy, and averts side effects in other parts of the body. Insulin aids the brain in its sugar usage.

But as promising as insulin therapy is for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, it's not an option yet for the public. We are still in [the...

You've done it again: lost your car keys somewhere in your house, or forgotten the name of a neighborhood acquaintance, or opened the refrigerator without having the slightest idea of what you were hoping to find. Everyone of a certain age has these so-called "senior moments," and many people make jokes about them to excuse their own forgetfulness. But are they just normal blips in an aging brain or signs of something more ominous to come?

To some degree, we all experience such foggy moments, especially as we get older. That's because our brain retrieves information on demand more slowly than before, according to experts on aging. Some of this slowing down is inevitable, and some can be attributed to problems such as insomnia, heavy drinking, high blood pressure, and many common medications. To some degree, these experts maintain, everyone over a certain age has subtle signs of dementia in their brains that don't necessarily ever manifest themselves in the way true dementia does. Much of this "slight Alzheimer's" is offset by what scientists call cognitive reserve, or extra brain capacity. Up to half of our cognitive reserve is inherited, and the rest can be created and nurtured by remaining active and intellectually stimulated. So even if it takes longer to remember something, our cognitive reserve will enable us to eventually make those neural connections.

But what if a loved one's behavior is worrisome? How do you know if it's simple forgetfulness or something more serious? Here's how to tell the difference:

Simple forgetfulness. You cannot remember the name of a friend of a friend to whom you've been introduced several times.

Possible dementia. You cannot remember the names of close family and friends.

Simple forgetfulness. You go the wrong way while driving even though you thought you knew how to get to that new restaurant.

Possible dementia. You frequently get lost in your own neighborhood.        &...

Do an internet search of “genetics and dementia” and you’ll find a slew of information about how having a family history of Alzheimers disease increases your risk. But there’s been precious little published about whether certain inherited characteristics may actually reduce your risk of Alzheimers—until now.

Several years ago, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York identified a gene variant called cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) in a population of Ashkenazi Jews. CETP became known as the longevity gene due to its ability to increase levels of HDL, the so-called “good cholesterol.” Better HDL levels translates into a reduced risk of heart disease, which means a longer life. Now that same group of scientists has discovered that not only does CETP improve lifespan, it actually reduces the incidence of cognitive decline in older people.

In this latest study, 523 people of various ethnic backgrounds who were healthy and with no apparent signs of cognitive decline were looked at. All were at least 70 at the start of the study. Over the next four years, the researchers measured them for signs of cognitive decline and counted how many of them developed dementia. The results? Participants who possessed two copies of the CETP gene experienced a slower rate of memory loss than others and had a whopping 70 percent reduced risk of developing dementia and Alzheimers compared with participants who didn’t ...