Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Mind games 'answer' to Alzheimer's

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society

"Relatively simple self-help measures and treatment by doctors have been shown by research to reduce or remove the risk of Alzheimer's and other dementias, a leading authority on the disease told the Guardian Hay Festival last night.

Among these measures are physical exercise, such as walking, taking fish oil and playing cards, the festival heard.
There is no need to wait for years for the discovery of miracle drugs to fight the predicted epidemic of 'many more millions' of Alzheimer's cases as the aged population grows, according to Lawrence Whalley, professor of mental health at Aberdeen University.

· The "fairly simple step" of adding the vitamins B12 and folate to the diet of everyone over 50. They should take 2.5 micrograms of B12 daily, he said.

· Brain-stimulating activities such as newspaper-reading, card games, puzzles and draughts. These had been shown in "the best study of the problem so far" to lower the risk of dementia. In urging this, Prof Whalley was challenging the widespread conventional wisdom that intelligence - as in the case of the novelist Iris Murdoch - and use of the mind are no protection against Alzheimer's. He declared: "The greater the mental activity at the beginning of the study, the lower the risk of dementia."

· Staying physically active as long as possible. "Women who walk" - healthy, physically active older women - had especially emerged from another long-term study of 6,000 women as "less likely to become demented". This was regardless of whether they had poor health, had done badly at school or smoked - factors which are usually regarded as important by Alzheimer's researchers.

· Taking fish oil supplements, already a habit among possibly 5% of people. Prof Whalley told his audience that about "100 grams of oily fish, taken two or three times a week is sufficient for an average adult".

Prof Whalley cited important research findings by the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing, which, he said were soon replicated by other researchers. The project found that "a naturally occurring amino acid - homocysteine - was increased in dementia sufferers and this deficit could be linked to their mental decline. Homocysteine builds up in the body when there is insufficient vitamin B12 and folate to convert homocysteine to methionine.

A Massachusetts study of more than 1,000 people, all initially without Alzheimer's, had shown that homocysteine was likely to be involved in the processes that occurred before the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. The people were studied for up to 12 years. By the end, 111 had developed dementia.

"The risk of dementia in those with the highest homocysteine concentrations was about double the risk in all other subjects," Prof Whalley said. Achieving even slight delays in the onset of the disease could have a significant impact in reducing numbers of new cases and the huge predicted costs of care.

Summing up his analysis of up-to-date research, he said: "I concluded that whatever your doctor tells you is good for your heart is probably good for your head." "

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Alzheimer's patients despair as drug decision is delayed

SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Health | Alzheimer's patients despair as drug decision is delayed: "James Meikle, health correspondent::The Guardian

Government advisers have delayed a decision on the use of drugs to combat Alzheimer's disease as a row intensifies over the way the NHS determines which treatments it can afford...

Draft proposals to end routine prescription of four drugs for newly diagnosed patients on the grounds that they are not cost-effective sparked an outcry from patient groups, carers, doctors and manufacturers earlier this year.

Clive Ballard, the research director at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "It seems absolutely outrageous that drugs so clearly clinically effective should be withheld at such a modest cost.

"These drugs are not a cure ... but they do give people significant benefits ... In the context of most serious conditions, people would say buying a year of quality of life is something worth achieving."

About 750,000 Britons are thought to have dementia, of whom two-thirds are Alzheimer's patients"

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