Alzheimer

A federal administrative judge ruled that pomegranate juice maker Pom Wonderful used deceptive advertising when it implied its products could treat or prevent serious diseases and other medical conditions. Judge D. Michael Chappell upheld much of a 2010 Federal Trade Commission complaint against the Los Angeles company owned by Lynda and Stewart Resnick. The judge said in his decision issued Monday that Pom used "insufficient" evidence to back its claims that Pom products "treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction.

Asserting "we are at an exceptional moment" in the hunt for an Alzheimer'sdiseasetreatment, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins on Tuesday promised a raft of new research aimed at stopping and reversing the memory-robbing disorder by the year 2025. In unveiling a first-ever "national strategy" on Alzheimer's disease, Collins launched several new projects and clinical trials--including a whole-genome sequencing effort to identify genes that confer vulnerability to--or protection against-- Alzheimer's, and a trial to explore whether an inhaled form of insulin will slow progression of the disease.

The Grammy Award-winning singer Glen Campbell announced this week that he is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. And then he said he'd be going on the road for a farewell tour. It's not unusual for a public figure to reveal a diagnosis of the insidious disease. Former President Reagan told the world of his battle with Alzheimer's in a poignant letter in 1994. Actor Charlton Heston disclosed, via a taped statement, that he was suffering from symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer's.

Even if you're 80 or older, it's not too late for daily exercise to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study. And if hitting the gym isn't quite your style, here's more good news: You can also benefit by doing housework, researchers say. Plenty of research has suggested that people who make a habit of exercising are less likely to get Alzheimer's, though scientists aren't sure how to explain the link. Other activities that have been correlated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer's include engaging one's brain in mentally stimulating activities, spending time in social groups and eating a healthful diet, according to the National Institute on Aging . The new study , published in the journal Neurology, involved 716 people who were part of the Memory and Aging Project at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

High doses of the Alzheimer's drug Aricept should be banned because they are no more effective than low doses and have a sharply increased risk of adverse effects, the advocacy group Public Citizen and a Johns Hopkins University geriatrician said Wednesday in a petition to the Food and Drug Administration. Aricept, known generically as donepezil, is one of the very few drugs available for treating Alzheimer's disease, but it provides only a very modest slowing in the cognitive and functional deficits associated with the disease.

Pretty much everyone who wanders into Pat Summitt's office or visits her basketball practice these days has learned to fear the iPad. The coach keeps her tablet filled with brain-wrenching games. Crossword puzzles and Sudoku. Math quizzes and memory tests. "When people come by," said Tyler, her son, "she gets them to sit down and try one of those things. " It was seven months ago that doctors diagnosed Summitt with early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type, an incurable brain disease that affects memory, thinking and behavior.

Treating a sleep disorder to improve oxygen flow through the body may also help lower the risk of dementia in older-age people, according to a new study. The research, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. , must be replicated. But it's exciting nonetheless because it suggests a rare, successful measure that may prevent at least some cases of cognitive impairment. Sleep disorders such as frequent waking and hypoxia (a lack of oxygen) have been linked to other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

Even if you're 80 or older, it's not too late for daily exercise to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study. And if hitting the gym isn't quite your style, here's more good news: You can also benefit by doing housework, researchers say. Plenty of research has suggested that people who make a habit of exercising are less likely to get Alzheimer's, though scientists aren't sure how to explain the link. Other activities that have been correlated with a reduced risk for Alzheimer's include engaging one's brain in mentally stimulating activities, spending time in social groups and eating a healthful diet, according to the National Institute on Aging . The new study , published in the journal Neurology, involved 716 people who were part of the Memory and Aging Project at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" he asked me. He was about 84 years old and interested in a date. Sitting before him with my young son on my lap, I gave him the bad news: "No, but I have a husband and two kids. And I am your daughter, Dad." My father's confusion was the consequence of his battle with Alzheimer's disease. One day he recognized me, the next, maybe not. Though my brain could process that, my heart could not. No matter how realistic I tried to be about my father's decline and our awkward exchanges, I found it impossible to accept that he really didn't know me. Admitting to myself that we had lost our father-daughter connection even though he would be physically in my life for years to come was playing tricks with my own, still-intact brain.

You can't say Alzheimer's researchers aren't trying really hard to make progress in preventing and treating the disease. A team of researchers is cycling across the country to raise awareness of the need for more funding for the study of Alzheimer's. The Alzheimer's Breakthrough Ride will pass through Los Angeles on Thursday. Members of the Alzheimer's Assn.'s California Southland Chapter will meet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the Kodak Theatre, at the corner of Hollywood and Highland, to cheer on the riders.

No one wants to hear that he or she has Alzheimer's disease. But if the beta-amyloid plaques that are the disorder's key physical hallmark could be detected before memory loss and cognitive troubles were evident to all, would you want to know? And since no treatment currently works to stem the inexorable progress ofAlzheimer's, who would pay for a costly test to detect it early -- and why? Those questions are no longer hypothetical. Last week, the FDA approved an agent called Florbetapir F 18 injection (to be marketed as Amyvid)

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

The congressional legislators who oversee the Food and Drug Administration and control the nation's coffers have shown again that they neither understand drug development nor the regulatory problems that plague it. In February, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski(D-Md.) unveiled a bipartisan bill intended to spur innovation in research and drug development for chronic, costly health conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. According to the press release, the bill will invest "in public-private partnerships to ensure scientists and researchers are able to develop new safe and effective drugs," shrink product development timelines, increase the number of drugs in the development pipeline and expedite the FDA review process.

People who have trouble sleeping may be at higher risk of developing memory problems, new research shows. People who woke frequently in the night had a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to work to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in New Orleans in April. Other research has shown a link between impaired sleep and multiple-personality disorder , as well as other forms of dissociation. And research in mice has shown that disrupted sleep can actually cause an increase in the buildup of amyloid plaque in the brain -- buildup that happens years before any outward symptoms of Alzheimer's occur.

A drug that has been approved for the treatment of a type of skin cancer since 1999 appears to reverse Alzheimer's symptoms -- in mice.  Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine neuroscientist Gary Landreth and colleagues reported Thursday that bexarotene quickly cleared away beta-amyloid plaque, believed to cause the cognitive deficits of Alzheimer's disease, from the brains of genetically engineered mice.  Mice who received bexarotene...

Just as scientists are announcing a breakthrough in their understanding of howAlzheimer'sspreads through the brain, robbing its sufferers of memories and cognitive functioning, the Obama administration is proposing a dramatic increase in federal funding for Alzheimer's research. The president's budget for fiscal year 2013 is expected to request $80 million more than the $458 million currently allocated. It calls for an additional $26 million in funds to help support families and others who take on the task of caring for people with Alzheimer's.

Keeping cholesterol in check may not just be good for your heart--a study finds that people who have high cholesterol may at greater risk for brain plaques, which are associated with Alzheimer's disease. In the study, published today in the journal Neurology , brain specimens were examined from 147 autopsies that were done between 1998 and 2003. Among the Japanese participants all were free from signs of dementia when they were tested in 1988, but 34% were diagnosed with dementia before they died.

A vaccine for Alzheimer's disease has been a long-held goal of researchers studying the devastating disease. Research presented Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting showed one potential vaccine under study appears both safe and effective in an animal model. Most Alzheimer's vaccine research aims to prevent the accumulation of amyloid-beta plaque in the brain that can interfere with memory and cognition. However, work on a vaccine was derailed when a study in 2002 showed that an investigational vaccine targeting amyloid-beta also caused an autoimmune response that led to dangerous inflammation in the brain.

In an experiment likely to raise new hopes for those with memory-robbing diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers have found that sending an electrical jolt to a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory improved people's ability to learn -- and remember -- their way across an unfamiliar landscape. The study, conducted at UCLA and published in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, was small and highly preliminary, involving just seven patients with epilepsy.

With the president preparing to unveil his final budget proposal before the November election, the Obama administration announced plans Tuesday to dramatically boost funding for research into Alzheimer's disease. Administration officials said the president would propose an additional $80 million in research funding next year, up from about $450 million this year. The president will also call for another $26 million in funding to help support family and others who care for Americans suffering from the disease.