People with dementia exposed to low quality of life through lack of activity

December 4, 2015
Science Daily/Griffith University
People with dementia living in long-term care often show low levels of activity participation, which negatively impacts their quality of life, say researchers.

Quality of life for people with dementia living in long-term care is often negatively impacted due to low levels of activity participation.

Furthermore, staff and families remain pessimistic about the abilities of the person with dementia to be engaged.

These are among the findings of a large-scale national study on the quality of life of people with dementia in residential aged care undertaken by the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre and Griffith University.

The study will be presented at this week's 11th Gold Coast Health and Medical Research Conference (Dec 4 and 5) by Professor Wendy Moyle from Griffith's Menzies Health Institute Queensland.

Using 53 residential aged care facilities across Australia, the study measured the participation levels across 15 leisure activities for residents with dementia (five items indoors and 10 items outdoors). For the 191 residents who were able to rate their own activity, the average score was 11.4 out of 30, with 0 being the lowest participation rate and 30 being the highest.

Among the 435 staff members surveyed in the study, the average score was 9.6, so lower than the people with dementia who self-reported on activities.

Families were found to be the most pessimistic regarding the degree to which they believed their family member engaged in leisure activities, with an average score of 7.

The study also tested the levels of cognitive impairment (brain function) and found that this was not related to the resident's assessment of their activity participation.

"It is particularly interesting that cognitive impairment was not found to be related to the residents' activity score whereas staff and family members' rating of a resident's activity level was highly negatively related to their cognitive impairment, such that those with more severe impairment were seen as having lower activity levels," says Professor Moyle.

"There appears to be a wrongly held assumption by staff and family that people with severe or late stage dementia are not capable of leisure activity or that they do not require the stimulation of activities.

"However we can see that although these people see themselves as having low ability, they have the capacity for a lot more.

"We already know that activity is really important and just because people with dementia may be cognitively impaired, it doesn't mean that they should miss out on engagement in an activity. Missing out in this way can result in not only further lowering cognitive ability, but also the potential for there being an unmet need in the person. This may be exhibited as behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia such as agitation and wandering which can also result in an increased need for medication."

All three groups within the study rated those who they saw as more depressed, as having lower activity levels.

"When we looked at the resident's self-report, for example, the more they rated themselves as depressed, the lower they rated their own overall activity level. Among staff the difference was particularly large; they rated those with no depression with an average score of 10.9 versus a score of 6.4 for those they saw as being severely depressed.

"Maintaining quality of life for people with dementia living in long-term care is important, as there is no cure for this prevalent condition," says Professor Moyle. "When people with dementia go into long-term care, there is a belief that they will be more engaged in activities and will experience an improved quality of life. This unfortunately is not always the case.

"Given that leisure activities are proven to be related to the overall quality of life of this group, then there needs to be a concerted look at how this can be improved."

Professor Moyle suggests that higher staff to resident ratios are required in care homes, with the potential for integrating increased numbers of volunteers to provide more leisure activities within the care setting.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151204000241.htm

MIND diet repeatedly ranked among best

Included seven times in U.S. News & World Report's 2016 'Best Diets'

January 5, 2016
Science Daily/Rush University Medical Center
A diet proven to lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously has also been ranked as the easiest diet to follow by U.S. News & World Report.

A diet created, studied and reported on by researchers at Rush University Medical Center has been ranked the easiest diet to follow and the second best overall diet (tying in both categories) for 2016 by U.S. News & World Report. The MIND diet also tied for third for best diet for healthy eating and was ranked in the top five in five categories and the top 20 in seven, as follows:

•    Easiest Diets to Follow: No. 1 (tie)
•    Best Diets Overall: No. 2 (tie)
•    Best Diets for Healthy Eating: No. 3 (tie)
•    Best Diets for Diabetes: No. 4 (tie)
•    Best Heart-Healthy Diets: No. 4
•    Best Weight-Loss Diets: No. 16 (tie)
•    Best Fast Weight-Loss Diets: No. 21 (tie)

Now in its sixth year, the annual "Best Diets" list provides the facts about 35 chosen eating plans and ranks them on a range of levels, from their heart healthiness to their likelihood to help with weight loss. To create the annual rankings, U.S. News editors and reporters spend months winnowing potential additions to the diet roster and then mine medical journals, government reports and other resources to create in-depth profiles. Each profile explains how the diet works, whether or not its claims are substantiated, scrutinizes it for possible health risks and examines what it's like to live on the diet, not just read about it.

Eating away at Alzheimer's risk

The MIND diet is a research-based diet developed by Martha Clare Morris, ScD, a Rush nutritional epidemiologist, and her colleagues. In recent studies, the MIND diet showed that it helped lower the risk of Alzheimer's by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who followed it moderately well.

"One of the more exciting things about this is that people who adhered even moderately to the MIND diet had a reduction in their risk for Alzheimers," Morris says. The researchers also have found that adhereing to the diet may slow cognitive decline among aging adults, even when the person is not at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease

The name of the MIND diet is short for Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. The diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. Both diets have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, heart attack and stroke. Some researchers have found that the two older diets provide protection against dementia as well.

Morris and her colleagues developed the MIND diet based on information that has accrued from years' worth of research about what foods and nutrients have good, and bad, effects on the functioning of the brain.

A wine and no cheese party

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups" and five unhealthy groups -- red meat, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food.

To adhere to and benefit from the MIND diet, a person would need to eat at least three servings of whole grains, a green leafy vegetable and one other vegetable every day -- along with a glass of wine -- snack most days on nuts, have beans every other day or so, eat poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week. In addition, the study found that to have a real shot at avoiding the devastating effects of cognitive decline, he or she must limit intake of the designated unhealthy foods, especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), sweets and pastries, whole fat cheese, and fried or fast food (less than a serving a week for any of the three).

Berries are the only fruit specifically to be included in the MIND diet. "Blueberries are one of the more potent foods in terms of protecting the brain," Morris says, and strawberries also have performed well in past studies of the effect of food on cognitive function.

"The MIND diet is a modification of the Mediterranean and DASH diets that highlights the foods and nutrients shown through the scientific literature to be associated with dementia prevention," Morris says. "There is still a great deal of study we need to do in this area, and I expect that we'll make further modifications as the science on diet and the brain advances. We devised a diet and it worked in this Chicago study," she adds. To establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the MIND diet and reductions in the incidence of Alzheimer's disease, "The results need to be confirmed by other investigators in different populations and also through randomized trials."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160105134102.htm

Zoning out or deep thinking?

Brain scans show that stories that force us to think about our deepest values activate a region of the brain once thought to be its autopilot

January 7, 2016
Science Daily/University of Southern California
Reading stories about values you hold sacred activates a part of your brain once thought to be used for zoning out. The researchers suggest that these results were gained not just because the brain is presented with a moral quandary, but rather that the quandary is presented in a narrative format.

Real-time brain scans show that when people read stories that deal with these core, protected values, the "default mode network" in their brains activates.

This network was once thought of as just the brain's autopilot, since it has been shown to be active when you're not engaged by anything in the outside world -- but studies like this one suggest that it's actually working to find meaning in the narratives.

"The brain is devoting a huge amount of energy to whatever that network is doing. We need to understand why," said Jonas Kaplan of the USC Dornsife Brain and Creativity Institute. Kaplan was the lead author of the study, which was published on Jan. 7 in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

Kaplan thinks that it's not just that the brain is presented with a moral quandary, but rather that the quandary is presented in a narrative format.

"Stories help us to organize information in a unique way," he said.

To find relevant stories, the researchers sorted through 20 million blog posts using software developed at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.

"We wanted to know how people tell stories in their daily lives. It was kind of like finding stories in their natural habitat," said Kaplan, assistant research professor of psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

That 20 million was pared down to 40 stories that each contained an example of a crisis involving a potentially protected value: cheating on a spouse, having an abortion, crossing a picket line, or getting in a fight.

Those stories were translated into Mandarin Chinese and Farsi, and then read by American, Chinese and Iranian participants in their native language while their brains were scanned by fMRI. They also answered general questions about the stories while being scanned.

Stories that participants said involved values that were protected to them activated the default mode network in their brain to a greater degree. In addition, the level of activation varied from culture to culture. On average, Iranians showed the greatest level of activation in the study, while the Chinese participants showed the least.

"Stories appear to be a fundamental way in which the brain organizes information in a practical and memorable manner. It is important to understand the neural mechanisms required to do this, and this study is a step in that direction," said Antonio Damasio, senior author of the study. Damasio is co-director of the Brain and Creativity Institute, holder of the David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience and a professor of psychology and neurology.

It's not yet clear whether a value either is or is not protected, or whether the sacredness of a value is on a sliding scale. But in a nation where political beliefs are growing more polarized and entrenched, it's important to understand what biological processes lie at the root of these values, Kaplan said.

"People will often hold political values as protected values and protected values are at the root of many political conflicts around the world, which is why they're interesting to us," he said.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160107094111.htm

Been here before: How the brain builds place memories

Researchers activate previously dormant memory cells

February 4, 2016
Science Daily/Universitaet Tübingen
Neuroscientists have succeeded in activating dormant memory cells in rats. Using weak electrical impulses targeted at previously inactive cells in the hippocampus, the researchers induced the cells to recognize the exact place where the impulse had been first administered. The new study offers insight into the question of how memories are formed within our brains.

Memory is one of the most important functions of our brain. Not only does it allow us to regale our grandchildren with the exploits of our youth; it is essential for many everyday procedures. Our memory is constantly and immediately active whenever we experience a new thing. For instance, after meeting somebody only once, we still recognise them after hours or days. And even when we go somewhere for the first time -- for instance, the perfume section of a department store, a particular office in a building, or the toilet in a restaurant -- we will usually be able to find our way to the exit without a problem.

So our memory is not only constantly alert, it also constructs new recollections very quickly -- often during the first interaction. The reason for this alacrity of memory formation is the fact that for every person, every place -- and probably a lot of other concepts, too -- there are individual memory cells that are specifically assigned to that memory. One subtype of these neurons called granule cells is situated in the hippocampus, a centrally located brain area. Whenever memory concepts like "my living room" or "Angela Merkel" are activated -- e.g. by stepping into the living room or by seeing a photo of the German chancellor -- the small number of granule cells associated with that memory become activated in the form of electrical discharges. The large majority of the remaining neurons, however, remain dormant.

Up to now, the mechanisms through which individual granule cells are assigned to specific memories were not understood. The question of whether 'silent' granule cells can become activated under certain circumstances proved particularly intriguing. The Tübingen research team led by Dr. Andrea Burgalossi worked on the assumption that granule cells which receive electrical impulses can be 'un-silenced' and thus become memory cells. To confirm their hypothesis, they inserted hair-thin microelectrodes into the dentate gyrus of rats -- an area within the hippocampus which is responsible for memories of space and location -- allowing them to send weak electrical impulses to individual granule cells.

The rats were allowed to explore a simple labyrinth, and at a specific location within this labyrinth, individual granule cells were stimulated with weak electrical pulses (in the nanoampere range) via the microelectrode. The same electrode allowed the researchers to measure the subsequent activity of the stimulated cells. The result: whenever the rats arrived at the same spot within the labyrinth where the original impulse had been administered, stimulated granule cells now fired spontaneously. The electrical impulse had thus induced the individual granule cells to form a place memory.

Moreover, Dr. Burgalossi and his team found that the duration and temporal pattern of the impulses administered play a large role. The impulses formed more durable place memories when they followed the natural theta-rhythm of the brain -- a periodic increase and decrease in electrical potential which takes place roughly 4 to 12 times per second. Another finding could turn out to be of equal importance: rats that were new to the labyrinth reacted much more keenly to the induced place memory than rats that had been given the run of the labyrinth beforehand. Apparently, memory cells can be activated more easily when the brain is exposed to novel information.

These new insights into memory formation shed light on one of the most important functions of the human brain. And though there is still much to do before fundamental findings like these can offer new strategies for the treatment of brain diseases which affect memory formation (e.g. Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson, dementia), they represent an indispensable first step on the way.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204122050.htm

Scientists find brain plasticity assorted into functional networks

Experiences change brain cells differently

February 4, 2016
Science Daily/Virginia Tech
Scientists had thought that most synapses of a similar type and in a similar location in the brain behaved in a similar fashion with respect to how experience induces plasticity. In this work, scientists found dramatic differences in the plasticity response, even between neighboring synapses in response to identical activity experiences.

The brain still has a lot to learn about itself. Scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute have made a key finding of the striking differences in how the brain's cells can change through experience.

Their results were published this week in PLOS ONE.

"Neurons can undergo long-term changes in response to experience such as learning, emotions, or other activity," said Michael Friedlander, executive director of the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute. Friedlander co-authored the paper with his former graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, Ignacio Saez. "Neuroscientists have focused much of their attention on understanding the neuroplasticity of the connections between nerve cells called synapses."

Synapses, the specialized connections between neurons, work by translating an electrical signal from one neuron into a chemical signal to modify the receiving neuron. The chemical signal triggers an electrical signal in the receiving neuron, and the process continues.

Synapses may become stronger or weaker by changing efficiency of the chemical communication process in response to repeated bouts of co-activation of the two interconnected neurons. This process, called synaptic plasticity, can cause changes that persist beyond the co-activation period for mere minutes through a lifetime.

Outside experience can be internalized as a physical reorganization of the brain's synaptic communication process. This is especially important during the brain's development but also throughout life as experiences such as learning continually modify the brain's synaptic circuitry.

"Until recently, scientists had thought that most synapses of a similar type and in a similar location in the brain behaved in a similar fashion with respect to how experience induces plasticity," Friedlander said. "In our work, however, we found dramatic differences in the plasticity response, even between neighboring synapses in response to identical activity experiences."

Friedlander and Saez reported that neurons whose excitatory synapses are in a certain states of plasticity, based on previous experiences, assort themselves into groups to converge onto specific individual neurons in the developing brain.

"Individual neurons whose synapses are most likely to strengthen in response to a certain experience are more likely to connect to certain partner neurons, while those whose synapses weaken in response to a similar experience are more likely to connect to other partner neurons," Friedlander said. "The neurons whose synapses do not change at all in response to that same experience are more likely to connect to yet other partner neurons, forming a more stable but non-plastic network."

The researchers observed this like-type synaptic plasticity buddy system in a rodent model, using an isolated part of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing vision. The scientists recorded electrical activity from individual neurons after activating groups of neighboring neurons. They then compared that recording to the electrical activity elicited in response to the activation of only a single neighboring neuron. The synapses were trained by repeating the activation process, to mimic learning.

When the scientists applied a pharmacological agent to the neurons that blocked synaptic inhibition, they saw that training elicited more dramatic and varied plasticity at excitatory synapses. The plasticity responses of different groups of synapses on a given neuron were more similar when inhibition was blocked, which effectively grouped together like-type neurons by their learning responses.

"While we've known for years that neurons of similar types tend to richly interconnect, this is the first demonstration that such assortment processes apply to synaptic plasticity," Friedlander said. "Such a result has implications for enhanced learning paradigms, as well as for better understanding the dynamic network properties of the large-scale neuronal networks in the living brain."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204175640.htm

Older and younger adults surf different brain waves

Scientists discover how aging rewires our brain

February 8, 2016
Science Daily/Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care
Cognitive scientists have found more evidence that aging brains work differently than younger brains when performing the same memory task, pointing to a potentially new direction for age-related cognitive care and exploration.

The study, led by the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences, found that younger and older adults show very different brain wave patterns when performing the same memory task. The study was published online in January in the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

"We know that our brains change over time, but fully understanding how we make and recall memories as we age has been a mystery," said Renante Rondina, a University of Toronto and Rotman graduate student in the Department of Psychology and lead author of the study. "Our findings are really novel as they show distinct differences in brain activity from one generation to the next. By mapping these key differences, we may be able to identify new ways to predict, diagnose and screen for cognitive decline."

The findings show that rhythmic activity within key regions of the brain, including the hippocampus, an area that is involved with the formation and retrieval of memories, and the neocortex, the grey matter "wrapping paper" of the brain which is concerned with sight, hearing, attention, and high-level thinking, change with advanced age.

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which measures the anatomy and structural integrity of the brain, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), which measures magnetic fields created by the brain's electrical activity, were used to track potential age-related differences as groups of younger and older adults performed a memory task. The median ages of the two groups were 24.8 and 65.9 years, respectively.

Rondina explained that brains are made up of billions of cells, which use electricity to communicate with each other. As signals are sent from one cell to the next, rhythmic patterns of electrical activity, commonly known as brain waves, are generated.

"Past studies have shown that brain waves travelling at slower speeds tend to be important for memory, while slightly faster speed brain waves play a role in our attention," said Rondina. "Other studies have looked at brain wave patterns as we process and recall memories, but our study is one of the first to look at key differences between younger and older adults' brain waves as they make and recall new memories."

While participant accuracy in the memory tasks was consistent across both groups, younger adults showed a surge in theta power (slower brain waves) that was predictive of their memory accuracy. In contrast, older adults demonstrated a rush of alpha oscillatory power (relatively faster brain waves) that was not observed in younger adults.

"It's remarkable to see how different the older participants' brain patterns are from the younger participants, while still maintaining accuracy," said Rondina. "According to the MRIs, there were minimal differences in the brain structures in the two groups, yet the brain waves were very different. With additional study, these results may lead to new, more sensitive ways of screening or diagnosing cognitive decline."

Rondina says the study's results do not immediately change diagnosis or treatment options for age-related cognitive impairments, but it will be interesting to see the long-term implications of these results, as we continue to learn how our brains change as we age.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160208135447.htm

Best to sleep on it: Brain activity patterns during sleep consolidate memory

February 19, 2016
Science Daily/University of Bristol
Why does sleeping on it help? This is the question tackled by new research, which reveals how brain activity during sleep sorts through the huge number of experiences we encounter every day, filing only the important information in memory.

The new discoveries, made by researchers from Bristol's Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, provide further evidence for the benefits of a good night's sleep. This is important because the bad nights of sleep often experienced by both the healthy population, and people with schizophrenia or Alzheimer's disease, lead to impaired mental function.

The findings, published in the journal Cell Reports, and put into context in an article in Trends in Neuroscience, show that patterns of brain activity that occur during the day are replayed at fast-forward speed during sleep.

This replayed activity happens in part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is our central filing system for memories. The key new finding is that sleep replay strengthens the microscopic connections between nerve cells that are active -- a process deemed critical for consolidating memories. Therefore, by selecting which daytime activity patterns are replayed, sleep can sort and retain important information.

Lead researcher Dr Jack Mellor, from the School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, said: 'These findings are about the fundamental processes that occur in the brain during the consolidation of memory during sleep. It also seems that the successful replay of brain activity during sleep is dependent on the emotional state of the person when they are learning. This has major implications for how we teach and enable people to learn effectively.'
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160219134813.htm

Long-term stress erodes memory

Study in mice places blame on immune system

March 1, 2016
Science Daily/Ohio State University
Sustained stress -- such as that experienced in bad marriages or when working for a beastly boss -- erodes memory, and the immune system plays a key role, according to a new study.

The work in mice could one day lead to treatment for repeated, long-term mental assault such as that sustained by bullying victims, soldiers and those who report to beastly bosses, the researchers say.

"This is chronic stress. It's not just the stress of giving a talk or meeting someone new," said lead researcher Jonathan Godbout, associate professor of neuroscience at Ohio State.

This is the first study of its kind to establish the relationship between short-term memory and prolonged stress. In the case of the mice, that meant repeat visits from a larger, nasty intruder mouse.

Mice that were repeatedly exposed to the aggressive intruder had a hard time recalling where the escape hole was in a maze they'd mastered prior to the stressful period.

"The stressed mice didn't recall it. The mice that weren't stressed, they really remembered it," Godbout said.

They also had measurable changes in their brains, including evidence of inflammation brought on by the immune system's response to the outside pressure. This was associated with the presence of immune cells, called macrophages, in the brain of the stressed mice.

The research team was able to pin the short-term memory loss on the inflammation, and on the immune system.

Their work, which appears in The Journal of Neuroscience, builds on previous research substantiating the connections between chronic stress and lasting anxiety.

The impact on memory and confirmation that the brain inflammation is caused by the immune system are important new discoveries, Godbout said.

"It's possible we could identify targets that we can treat pharmacologically or behaviorally," he said.

It could be that there are ways to interrupt the inflammation, said John Sheridan, who worked on the study and is associate director of Ohio State's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.

The mice used in the study are exposed to repeated social defeat -- basically dominance by an alpha mouse -- that aims to mimic chronic psychosocial stress experienced by humans.

Researchers at Ohio State seek to uncover the secrets behind stress and cognitive and mood problems with a long-range goal of finding ways to help those who are anxious, depressed and suffer from lasting problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

This new research focused on the hippocampus, a hub of memory and emotional response.

The researchers found that the stressed mice had trouble with spatial memory that resolved within 28 days. They found that the mice displayed social avoidance, which measures depressive-like behavior, that continued after four weeks of monitoring.

And they were able to measure deficits in the development of new neurons 10 days and 28 days after the prolonged stress ended.

When they gave the mice a chemical that inhibited inflammation, neither the brain-cell problem nor the depressive symptoms went away. But the memory loss and inflammatory macrophages did disappear.

And that led them to conclude that the post-stress memory trouble is directly linked to inflammation -- and the immune system -- rather than to other damage to the brain. That type of information can pave the way for immune-based treatments, Godbout said.

"Stress releases immune cells from the bone marrow and those cells can traffic to brain areas associated with neuronal activation in response to stress," Sheridan said. "They're being called to the brain, to the center of memory."
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160301173947.htm

Blueberries, the well-known 'super fruit,' could help fight Alzheimer's

March 14, 2016
Science Daily/Science Daily/American Chemical Society
The blueberry, already labeled a 'super fruit' for its power to potentially lower the risk of heart disease and cancer, also could be another weapon in the war against Alzheimer's disease. New research being presented today further bolsters this idea, which is being tested by many teams. The fruit is loaded with healthful antioxidants, and these substances could help prevent the devastating effects of this increasingly common form of dementia, scientists report.

The researchers present their work today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

"Our new findings corroborate those of previous animal studies and preliminary human studies, adding further support to the notion that blueberries can have a real benefit in improving memory and cognitive function in some older adults," says Robert Krikorian, Ph.D., leader of the research team. He adds that blueberries' beneficial effects could be due to flavonoids called anthocyanins, which have been shown to improve animals' cognition.

Currently 5.3 million people suffer from Alzheimer's disease. But that number is expected to increase, Krikorian notes, as the U.S. population ages. By 2025, the number of Americans with this degenerative disorder could rise 40 percent to more than 7 million, and it could almost triple by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association.

In an effort to find ways to slow down this alarming trend, Krikorian and colleagues at University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center conducted two human studies to follow up on earlier clinical trials.

One study involved 47 adults aged 68 and older, who had mild cognitive impairment, a risk condition for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers gave them either freeze-dried blueberry powder, which is equivalent to a cup of berries, or a placebo powder once a day for 16 weeks.

"There was improvement in cognitive performance and brain function in those who had the blueberry powder compared with those who took the placebo," Krikorian says. "The blueberry group demonstrated improved memory and improved access to words and concepts." The team also conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which showed increased brain activity in those who ingested the blueberry powder.

The second study included 94 people aged 62 to 80, who were divided into four groups. The participants didn't have objectively measured cognitive issues, but they subjectively felt their memories were declining. The groups received blueberry powder, fish oil, fish oil and powder or placebo.

"The results were not as robust as with the first study," Krikorian explained. "Cognition was somewhat better for those with powder or fish oil separately, but there was little improvement with memory." Also, fMRI results also were not as striking for those receiving blueberry powder. He says that the effect may have been smaller in this case because these participants had less severe issues when they entered the study.

Krikorian said the two studies indicate that blueberries may be more effective in treating patients with cognitive impairments, but may not show measurable benefit for those with minor memory issues or who have not yet developed cognitive problems.

In the future, the team plans to conduct a blueberry study with a younger group of people, aged 50 to 65. The group would include people at risk of developing Alzheimer's, such as those who are obese, have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. This work could help the researchers determine if blueberries could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160314084821.htm

Tooth loss increases the risk of diminished cognitive function

Systematic review shows association between tooth loss, reduced cognitive function in adults

March 23, 2016
Science Daily/Science Daily/International & American Associations for Dental Research
The International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) have published an article titled "Tooth Loss Increases the Risk of Diminished Cognitive Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" in the OnlineFirst portion of the JDR Clinical & Translational Research. In it, Cerutti-Kopplin et al systematically assessed the association between oral health and cognitive function in adult populations.

The increase of cognitive impairment and its pathologic correlates, such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease, in aging populations is progressing worldwide and creating a significant burden on health systems. Better insight into the nature and extent of the association between oral health and cognitive function is of great importance since it could lead to preventive interventions for cognitive performance. Therefore, the objective of this review was to systematically examine if tooth loss leads to cognitive impairment and its most prevalent pathologic correlate (dementia).

Eligible study reports were identified by searching the MEDLINE (via Ovoid), EMBASE, PsycoINFO and Cochrane Library databases. Pooled hazard ratios with 95 percent confidence intervals were calculated with a random effects model. From 1,251 identified articles, 10 were included in the systematic review and eight in the meta-analysis. Random effects analysis showed, with statistically low heterogeneity, that individuals with less than 20 teeth were at a 20 percent higher risk for developing cognitive decline (hazard ratios equal 1.26, 95 percent confidence intervals equal 1.14 to 1.40) and dementia (hazard ratios equal 1.22, 95 percent confidence intervals equal 1.04 to 1.43) than those with greater than or equal to 20 teeth.

Based on the published literature, the results of this study show that the risk for cognitive impairment and dementia increases with loss of teeth. This information suggests that oral health strategies aimed to preserve teeth may be important in reducing risk of systemic disease.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160323152025.htm