Alzheimer S Disease

If you want to live longer -- avoid heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer -- then pick and choose your foods with care to quiet down parts of your immune system. That's the principle promoted by the founders and followers of anti-inflammatory diets, designed to reduce chronic inflammation in the body. Dozens of books filled with diets and recipes have flooded the market in the last few years, including popular ones by dermatologist Dr. Nicholas Perricone and Zone Diet creator Barry Sears.

What's new: Obesity appears to increase a person's chances of cognitive decline in old age -- but so, paradoxically, does weighing too little for one's height. The finding: People who maintain a healthy weight have a lower risk of dementia compared with those who are underweight or obese, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Iowa, published in the journal Obesity Reviews last month.

On Tuesday, someone from the biotech company Myriad Genetics Inc. will stand before hundreds of sober-faced scientists in a conference room in Chicago and try to explain why yet another highly anticipated medication for Alzheimer's disease will not make it to the marketplace. This year was supposed to herald the arrival of the first disease-modifying drug -- which pharmaceutical experts predict will be a multimillion-dollar product.

For PEOPLE already diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, waiting for research breakthroughs is disheartening. But life can still be lived with hope, says Wantland J. Smith, 69, a retired architect who was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's at age 66. Smith, of Los Angeles, takes medications to treat his symptoms, attends support-group meetings and even does volunteer advocacy work for the Alzheimer's Assn. in Los Angeles.

People with Alzheimer's face an awkward juncture in the near future. They'll be able to learn early on whether they have Alzheimer's disease -- even if they can't do much about it. With therapies to halt or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease seeming ever more elusive, several blood tests currently in development could determine who has the disease even before symptoms develop or become severe.

"Boston Legal" "Juiced" episode, ABC, Dec. 1 The premise Denny Crane (William Shatner) is undergoing a PET scan. The colors and images show that his brain activity is diminished in certain areas. While he is on the scanner, his doctors also test his ability to count backward from 100 by 7s and find that this ability has deteriorated. They conclude from the scan and tests that his Alzheimer's disease has progressed to Stage 3 or 4, signifying mild to moderate memory decline.

Scientists have identified a gene that increases the risk for late-onset Alzheimer's and provides another clue into the complex mind-robbing disease. The gene -- SORL1 -- stands out because it's been tested in four ethnic groups and a form of it seems to confer a risk in all of them -- including North Europeans, Caribbean Latinos, African Americans and Israeli Arabs.

Lonely people may have a greater risk of developing late-life dementia, researchers from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago reported this week. The study of 823 people older than 80 found that those who described themselves as lonely were twice as likely to develop the kind of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. Previous studies have suggested that people who are socially isolated or lack intellectual stimulation are at greater risk for Alzheimer's.

Each morning Frances Chavis sneaks out of her house for 6 a.m. prayer, hoping to get back before her husband wakes up. Chavis, whose husband Lemuel, 72, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003, spends her days as a "shadow" -- watching over her husband and the house, making sure everything is done correctly -- and, when she can, she naps. And every morning, after about two hours in church in the Crenshaw area, she returns to her home with the motivation and strength to go on.

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a 10% increase since the last Alzheimer's Assn. estimate five years ago -- and a count that supports the long-forecast dementia epidemic as the population grays. Age is the biggest risk factor, and the report released Tuesday showed the nation is on track for skyrocketing Alzheimer's once the baby boomers start turning 65 in 2011.