News seems to come in bulk about certain illnesses and this week, so far, it's been Alzheimer's.
I just wrote about the possibility of an Alzheimer's vaccine but there's other related news out there:
Yahoo is reporting that a long term study is showing that taking the antioxidant beta-carotene for and extended time - 15 or more years- seems to lessen the decline in cognitive ability that comes with Alzheimer's disease.
"My hypothesis is that it's how long you take it," said study lead author Francine Grodstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
HealthDay is reporting that patients with high blood pressure or atrial fibrilation may develop Alzheimer's at a faster rate.
"The main point of these findings is that vascular factors do affect the rate of progression in Alzheimer's, so treatment of these factors could reduce the rate of decline," said study author Dr. Michelle Mielke, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
HealthDay is also reporting on a study that found valsartan, a blood pressure medication, had to ability to reduce Alzheimer's in mice because it prevented the formation of beta-amyloid clumps.
"This is another example of laboratory work on Alzheimer's disease testing existing drugs to see if they have activity," said Gandy, who's also director of Emory University's Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. "We have been down this road with Epogen, with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; now we're going down the road with statins."
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