Twins Study Indicates Childhood Influences,.. Key to Future Dementia

[mom cat]

(Mods: title abbreviated for clarity)

Twins Study Indicates Childhood Influences, Not Just Genes, Key to Future Dementia

By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press
Published: Jun 19, 2005


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRLDNO5AE.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - Education and a healthy youth may override genes in determining who gets Alzheimer's disease, says a provocative new study of dementia patients and their healthy identical twins.
Researchers combed Sweden's twin registry to find 109 identical twins where one had Alzheimer's or another form of dementia but the other remained healthy. Then they checked the twins' medical histories.

Having had a stroke increased the chances of dementia six-fold, not surprising as cardiovascular disease has long been considered a risk factor, scientists reported at an Alzheimer's Association conference on the quest to prevent the disease.

More surprising were two early-in-life factors:

-Twins who had had early periodontal disease - leading to loose or lost teeth by age 35 - had a fourfold increased risk of dementia. Gum disease is a sign of poor child health in general. It's also an inflammatory disease; inflammation increases the risks of numerous disorders later in life.

-Those with less high school and college education had 1.6 times the risk of dementia. Mental stimulation throughout life is thought to be brain-protective.

[mom cat]

1. Scientists Finding Earliest Signs of Alzheimer's (Seek to Prevent)

Scientists Finding Earliest Signs of Alzheimer's as They Seek to Prevent the Disease

By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press
Published: Jun 19, 2005


http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB680NN5AE.html



WASHINGTON (AP) - A subtle change in a memory-making brain region seems to predict who will get Alzheimer's disease nine years before symptoms appear, scientists reported Sunday.
The finding is part of a wave of research aimed at early detection of the deadly dementia - and one day perhaps even preventing it.

Researchers scanned the brains of middle-aged and older people while they were still healthy. They discovered that lower energy usage in a part of the brain called the hippocampus correctly signaled who would get Alzheimer's or a related memory impairment 85 percent of the time.

"We found the earliest predictor," said the lead researcher, Lisa Mosconi of New York University School of Medicine. "The hippocampus seems to be the very first region to be affected."

[DUgosh]

5. How do they scan the hippocampus

With an MRI something else equally expensive??? I read somewhere recently that the a person ability to distinquish smells is also an early indicator. Are there smell senses in the hippocampus?

[Boomer]

6. Medical insurance companies are going to LOVE this

>> a big quest is to develop ways to identify Alzheimer's disease before symptoms emerge - finding biomarkers that could be targets for preventive therapies. <<

And that will get your policy rejected so quickly it will make your head spin. Alzheimer's is an expensive disease, with the possibility of years spent in a nursing home.

[mainer]

2. I don't know any accomplished musicians with Alzheimers

It's always seemed to me that the most demanding task you can ask of a human brain is to sight-read complex music. I've known a lot of Alzheimers patients. And I know a lot of really elderly musicians. But they seem to be mutually exclusive groups.

[mainer]

3. p.s.: Bush is at high risk for Alzheimers, IMHO

My dad has advanced Alzheimers, and bush reminds me so much of my dad when he was younger, it's eerie. My dad, like Bush, was a very concrete thinker, with no ability to come up with abstract ideas. Everything was either black or white. Like Bush, my dad would invariably fall back on simple words and sentence structure. (Something that's thought of admiringly as being plain-spoken, but is really the inability to form complex thoughts.)

I suspect Bush is on his way to getting Alzheimers, if he doesn't already have a touch of it.

[mom cat]

4. Not to mention Ronald Reagan who did have Alzheimer's while he was

President. The king makers don't want any one in the oval office who can actually think. They sure succeeded with Bush!

[preciousdove]

7. Some Gum disease is spirochetal...undiagnosed Lyme Disease is epidemic

Some gum disease is spirochetal and more difficult to treat. Spirochetes love brain tissue and slowly work their damage. Research shows that there may be a link between Alzheimer's and Lyme Disease (classic plaque tangles contain spirochetes). Studies indicate that the numbers of people infected but undiagnosed are continuing to rise very year and can reach 20% of the population in some areas. (still looking for that citation).

My computer is locking up must reboot and edit.
on edit still looking for numbers. Research money has not been forthcoming for studies on undiagnosed Lyme Disease but there are some small studies that I am trying to find to give a picture of how many people are walking around sick or with dormant disease.

The study by scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) and collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found profound differences between the gene content of T. denticola, which is associated with periodontal (gum) disease, and of other spirochetes that cause syphilis and Lyme disease.

http://gnn.tigr.org/new/press_release_03-29-04.shtml


Alzheimer's disease--a spirochetosis?
Miklossy J, Neuroreport 1993 Jul;4(7):841-8
as of 23 September 1998
NeuroReport 4, §41-§48 (1993)
NeuroReport Vol. 4 No. 7 July 1993
Alzheimer's disease--a spirochetosis?

Judit Miklossy

University Institute of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology,
University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 27, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland

The aetiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects a large proportion of the aged population is unknown and the treatment unresolved. The role of beta amyloid protein (ßA4), derived from a larger amyloid precursor protein (APP) in AD is the subject of intense research. Here I report observations that in 14 autopsy cases, with histopathologically confirmed AD, spirochetes were found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid and, moreover, could be isolated from brain tissue. Thirteen age-matched control cases were without spirochetes. Reference strains of spirochetes and those isolated from brains of AD patients, showed positive immunoreaction with monoclonal antibody against the ß amyloid precursor protein. These observations suggest that spirochetes may be one of the causes of AD and that they may be the source of the ß amyloid deposited in the AD brain.
see full text http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Retreat/1593/ad-miklossy-study.txt

"Beta-amyloid deposition and Alzheimer's type changes induced by Borrelia spirochetes"

Judith Miklossya, b, , , Andras Kisc, Alexandra Radenovicc, Lisa Millerd, Laszlo Forroc, Ralph Martinse, Krzysztof Reissf, Nune Darbinianf, Pushpa Darekarb, Laszlo Mihalyg and Kamel Khalilif

aKinsmen Laboratory of Neurological Research, University of British Columbia, 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
bUniversity Institute of Pathology, Division of Neuropathology, University Medical School (CHUV), 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
cDepartment of Physics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
dNational Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA
eSir James McCusker Alzheimer's Disease Research Unit, School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, University of Western Australia, Hollywood Private Hospital, Perth, WA, Australia
fCenter for Neurovirology and Cancer Biology, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, 1900 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
gStony Brook University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USA

Received 19 July 2004; revised 4 January 2005; accepted 26 January 2005. Available online 13 May 2005.

THE UNDERDIAGNOSIS OF NEUROPSYCHIATRIC LYME DISEASE IN CHILDREN AND
ADULTS
tp://flash.lymenet.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000533.html

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T09-4G5BJ7S-1&_coverDate=05%2F13%2F2005&_alid=279596341&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_qd=1&_cdi=4857&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3cc22180ad685808b798f9e84279d768

[Delphinus]

8. This is what worries me ...

-Twins who had had early periodontal disease - leading to loose or lost teeth by age 35 - had a fourfold increased risk of dementia. Gum disease is a sign of poor child health in general. It's also an inflammatory disease; inflammation increases the risks of numerous disorders later in life.

I have had so many problems with my gums and teeth - have already lost seven teeth and have to wear a small bridge - even after having two (maybe three) rounds of that surgery where they split your gums and scrape the bone.

I wish there was a simple blood test - I've worked with too many Alzheimer's people that I'd rather die than lose my mind.

[bleedingheart]

9. I truly believe that an active mind is one that remains healthy

Alzheimers runs in my husbands family...both sets of grandparents were afflicted and he has an uncle and aunt suffering from it now.

BUT!! his father and his siblings that have remained active and who have consistently been active with their minds have not yet been afflicted....