If poor quality sleep increases risk of dementia, as some studies suggest, why not take benzodiazepines to improve sleep? Well, other lines of research conclude that use of this class of medication may also increase dementia risk. Confused? Practice good sleep hygiene and avoid sleeping pills. A new study seems to explain the effect of insufficient… Read more »
Early-life cognitive enrichment is based on socioeconomic status in early life, cognitive resources at 12 years of age, cognitively stimulating activities at 6 years of age and early life foreign language instruction. This looks a lot like the classic proxy measures of cognitive reserve which are years of education, life-long occupation, IQ, and adult reading…. Read more »
In this strange Covid-19 world, we all worry if the upcoming vaccine will be safe. The story of vaccines and Alzheimer’s is instructive. Dr Hugh Fudenberg, whose license was revoked in 1995, claimed that the flu vaccine increases the risk of Alzheimer’s. Two new studies, presented at the 2020 Alzheimer’s international conference, demonstrate that, in… Read more »
Herpes simplex virus type1 (HSV-1 or oral herpes) causes cold sores, and, less commonly than type 2, it can also cause genital herpes. Herpes zoster is the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles, and is not a suspect here. All herpes viruses are widespread in human populations. According to a controversial hypothesis, sporadic but… Read more »
This truly is a big deal. The accuracy of the clinical and MRI diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, even by experienced specialists, is no better than 80%. Disorders that can be mistaken for Alzheimer’s are many, especially vascular (strokes), Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal degeneration. PET scans (expensive) and spinal fluid analysis (invasive) detect amyloid and tau deposition in… Read more »
What could possibly be the connection? The first step is to understand personality traits. These tend to be lifelong and not amenable to psychotherapy of psychotropic medications. These are grouped as clusters but keep in mind that one size doesn’t fit all: Cluster A traits include paranoid and schizoid. Cluster B traits are histrionic, antisocial,… Read more »
I’m receiving daily calls from my MS patients who are understandably worried that their disease-modifying-therapy raises their risk of being infected with, and dying from, Covid-19. In my opinion and that of most MS specialists, they should continue their medication, especially the highly effective drugs, such as Tysabri, Ocrevus, and Mavenclad. They were started on… Read more »
This is the title of a recent documentary by director Susan Styron. Its mission is to reduce the stigma of migraine, often wrongly stereotyped as a lifestyle disorder of nervous white middle-class women. Migraine, in fact, is a complex, genetically determined neurological disorder, the second most important cause of disability, after low back pain. It… Read more »
In fact, it is now mainstream, based on a century of research in animals. Caloric restriction reduces ageing effects and increases lifespan in animals, presumably by limiting production of damaging oxygen free radicals. With fasting, metabolism is switched from liver-derived glucose to adipose cell-derived ketones. Periodic flipping of this switch by intermittent fasting leads to… Read more »
It’s no longer news that e-cigarettes and vaping devices can cause severe lung problems, including deaths. What is new is a report from the FDA in August 2019 of over 100 cases of epileptic seizures in young people with no prior history of epilepsy and no other recognized triggers. Not to condone marijuana vaping, it… Read more »
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