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An experimental Alzheimer's drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N) slowed cognitive decline by 35% in a closely watched late-stage trial, the company said on Wednesday, raising hopes for a second effective treatment for the brain-wasting disease. (excerpt) The drug, donanemab, met all goals of the trial. It slowed progression of Alzheimer's by 35% to 36% compared to a placebo in 1,182 people diagnosed with early-stage disease based on scans showing brain deposits of amyloid protein and intermediate levels of tau protein, Lilly said.

The exercise was simple: inhale for a count of five, then exhale for a count of five. Do that for 20 minutes, twice a day, for four weeks. Volunteers' heart rate variability increased during each exercise period and the levels of amyloid-beta peptides circulating in their blood decreased over the four weeks of the experiment. That's because the way we breathe affects our heart rate, which in turn affects our nervous system and the way our brain produces proteins and clears them away. A 2020 study found that heart rate variability drops on average 80 percent between twenty and sixty...

Former President Donald Trump is considering skipping at least some of the 2024 Republican primary debates, the New York Times reported, citing five people who have discussed the matter with Trump. Last month, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced the first two debates of the GOP presidential primary season. First will be a Fox News-hosted debate in August in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by a second debate in Southern California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer's. It's a vicious cycle: Alzheimer's disease involves changes to the brain that disrupt sleep, and poor sleep accelerates harmful changes to the brain. Researchers have identified a possible way to help break that cycle. A small, two-night study has shown that people who took a sleeping pill before bed experienced a drop in the levels of key Alzheimer's proteins. The study involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant. Suvorexant belongs to a class of insomnia medications known as dual orexin receptor antagonists. Orexin is a natural biomolecule that promotes wakefulness. When...

Summary: Suvorexant, a dual orexin receptor antagonist commonly prescribed to help treat insomnia reduced levels of the Alzheimer’s-associated amyloid beta protein in the brain. The findings hint that the sleep medication could slow or stop Alzheimer’s disease, but researchers say more research is needed to confirm the viability of the approach. Source: WUSTL Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Many people eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s start experiencing difficulty falling and staying asleep years before cognitive problems such as memory loss and confusion emerge. It’s a vicious cycle: Alzheimer’s disease involves changes to the brain that disrupt...

-Ralph Yarl was shot through a glass door by a white homeowner in his 80s after mistakenly approaching the wrong address -He had been going to collect his two younger twin brothers from a house less than a block away in Kansas City, Missouri -Police have not brought any charges in the incident, and released the suspected gunman after 24 hours A homeowner accused of shooting a black teenager in Missouri after the 16-year-old mistakenly rang his doorbell is understood to be an elderly white man in his 80s… … Ralph was known among his peers for his intellect and...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) neuroscientists discovered a method for reversing symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease by interfering with a hyperactive enzyme present in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. The MIT researchers treated mice with a peptide designed to block CDK5, an enzyme that is typically hyperactive in patients with various neurodegenerative diseases, and observed significant reductions in neurodegeneration, the study says. Mice were better at performing tasks and showed reduced DNA damage in the brain. “We found that the effect of this peptide is just remarkable,” said Li-Huei Tsai, director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the...

MIT neuroscientists have discovered a method to reverse neurodegeneration and other Alzheimer’s disease symptoms by blocking an overactive enzyme, CDK5, in patients’ brains. Treating mice with a peptide inhibitor, they observed significant reductions in neurodegeneration, DNA damage, and improved cognitive abilities. The peptide has the potential to be used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia with CDK5 overactivation, without interfering with essential, structurally similar enzymes. The peptide blocks a hyperactive brain enzyme that contributes to the neurodegeneration seen in Alzheimer’s and other diseases. MIT neuroscientists have found a way to reverse neurodegeneration and other symptoms of...

Following a Mediterranean-based ketogenic diet may decrease the risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study. Researchers compared a low-fat diet with a diet consisting of healthy fats/protein and low carbohydrates—the modified Mediterranean ketogenetic diet—and found that the modified diet showed robust changes in a biological pathway that is linked to Alzheimer's disease. This builds upon previous research showing that a modified ketogenic diet may prove beneficial in the prevention of cognitive decline. The randomized, single-site study involved 20 adults, nine diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 11 with normal cognition. These participants were randomly assigned to follow either...

The cause of death of legendary sex symbol Raquel Welch has been revealed. Welch, born Jo-Raquel Tejada in Chicago on September 5, 1940, died on February 15 of cardiac arrest after battling Alzheimer’s disease, her death certificate attests, according to TMZ. Her battle with Alzheimer’s had not been revealed at the time of her death. Welch told then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly in 2014 that she “was more on the conservative side,” adding, “I think it was my upbringing, to tell you the truth, Midwestern values. I just was raised in a certain way, ladies behave a certain way, your...

Chris Hemsworth has said that he’s slowing down — but not retiring — after learning that he’s at very high risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease later in life. SNIP Hemsworth, 39, discovered he’s at high risk for the disease while filming his National Geographic and Disney+ docuseries, “Limitless.” He recently told the glossy about “the intensity [of] navigating” the test results last November, and emphasized it’s not a diagnosis — just a sign that the neurodegenerative disease is more likely to be in his future than it is for most people.

For the first time, researchers have developed a form of the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that is capable of crossing into the eye's retina to ward off visual declines related to Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and other disorders. The DHA found in fish oil capsules is called triacylglycerol (TAG) DHA. Although TAG-DHA has benefits in other parts of the body, it does not reach the eyes. For the study, researchers created a new lysophospholipid form of DHA, or LPC-DHA. In studies using mice, LPC-DHA successfully increased DHA in the retina and reduced eye problems associated with Alzheimer's-like processes. In...

Fiber intake is associated with a lower risk of developing cognitive decline in those old people with the apolipoprotein E ApoE ε4 genotype, regarded as a genetic risk factor linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease. This is stated in a study. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a multifunctional protein synthetized and secreted by several cells (hepatocytes, adipocytes, etc.). the ApoE gene, which in humans is found in the chromosome 19, is a polymorphic one and has three codominant alleles (ε2, ε3 i ε4) which lead to different haplotypes or genetic variants. "Evidence shows that healthy diets, characterized by a high...

Vitamin D Supplement Sunshine A study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring found that taking vitamin D was linked to a longer period of living without dementia. The group that took vitamin D supplements also had 40% fewer dementia diagnoses. People get vitamin D from sun exposure, foods (such as fatty fish), and supplements. Taking vitamin D supplements may help ward off dementia, according to a new, large-scale study. Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and...

For the first time, a researcher has determined that the naturally occurring dietary supplement known as nicotinamide riboside (NR) can enter the brain. The discovery was made by Christopher Martens and Dr. Dimitrios Kapogiannis. The finding is significant because it supports the idea that NR, upon reaching the brain, can alter the metabolism of relevant biological pathways involved in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Upon consumption, NR is readily converted into nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is critical to cellular repair and the repair of damaged DNA. "NAD+ is gradually lost as we get older or develop chronic diseases. Loss of...

Pro-Trump cartoonist Scott Adams pulled the mask all the way off this week, declaring on his podcast that white people should “get the hell away from Black people” while labeling African-Americans as a “hate group.” Adams, who has written the satirical office comic strip Dilbert for more than three decades, said during his Coffee with Scott Adams online video program that current polling proves that there is “no fixing” the current racial tension in America and that whites should live in largely segregated neighborhoods. Citing a recent Rasmussen survey showing 53 percent of Black people agree with the phrase “It’s...

Israeli scientists gave an artificial molecule they invented to 30 mice suffering from Alzheimer’s — and found that all of them recovered, regaining full cognitive abilities. They stress that this was a small sample of mice and that human testing is far off, but believe the result indicates that within a decade, their synthetic molecule could be developed into a drug for treating the degenerative disease. The peer-reviewed research, led by neuroscientists from Ben-Gurion University, was recently published in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration. “We are taking a very different approach than efforts at Alzheimer’s medicines that we have seen so...

An ancient human foraging instinct, fueled by fructose production in the brain, may hold clues to the development and possible treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to researchers. "We make the case that Alzheimer's disease is driven by diet," said Richard Johnson, MD. Johnson and his team suggest that AD is a harmful adaptation of an evolutionary survival pathway used in animals and our distant ancestors during times of scarcity. When threatened with the possibility of starvation, early humans developed a survival response which sent them foraging for food. Yet foraging is only effective if metabolism is inhibited in various...

Choline, an essential nutrient found in foods including eggs, broccoli, beans, meat and poultry, is a vital ingredient for human health. A study explores how a deficiency of dietary choline adversely affects the body and may be a missing piece in the puzzle of Alzheimer's disease. It's estimated that more than 90% of Americans are not meeting the recommended daily intake of choline. The current research suggests dietary choline deficiency can have profound negative effects on the heart, liver and other organs. Lack of adequate choline is also linked with profound changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. These...

In a critical boost to President Joe Biden's reelection prospects, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a new Alzheimer's drug that "may modestly slow the pace of cognitive decline," according to the New York Times. Biden, the first octogenarian president in American history, is expected to formally announce his plans to seek a second term sometime next month, thus setting the stage for a potential rematch against Donald Trump. The president is going to need all the help he can get to mitigate the rapid deterioration of his brain before Election Day in 2024, which is probably why his...