A practical, science-based look at mild cognitive impairment, memory decline, and treatments that address the brain’s underlying regulatory systems. Most people become concerned when they begin noticing changes in their memory or concentration. Misplacing items more often, forgetting appointments, or struggling to recall names can feel alarming. When this happens, we talk of mild cognitive…
The Surprising Connection Between Wildfire Smoke and Brain Health: What You Need to Know Wildfires are getting worse. Look at what has happened in California, Greece, in Portugal. With global warming, you can be certain that there will be more devastating wildfires. Wildfires are not only ravaging the environment and endangering communities, but their smoke…
Neuroinflammation is swelling in the brain. It’s bad news. Swelling occurs in many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Alternatively, diseases such as hypertension or diabetes lead to stroke, which in turn triggers neuroinflammation. Or bad luck strikes and someone suffers a traumatic brain injury, which leads to neuroinflammation. Neuroinflammation is a common…
The Classic Case of Misfolded Proteins Did you know that misfolded proteins cause Mad Cow Disease? Strictly speaking, people don’t get Mad Cow Disease. Instead, cows do! Duh! When people eat the meat of infected cows, then they get Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CKD), a kind of dementia. CKD is a serious condition and kills you quickly.…
Why do we give levodopa to people with Parkinson’s disease instead of dopamine? After all, loss of dopamine, a major neurotransmitter in the brain, characterizes Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa vs Dopamine Well, the answer is simple, if surprising. It turn out that dopamine cannot cross the blood brain barrier (BBB). The BBB is a filter between…
A recent study showed a high rate of misdiagnosis of dementia when using brief cognitive screening tools. Concerningly, 35.7% of patients were incorrectly classified by at least one of the three screening procedures that were examined. The researchers looked at the well known Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Memory Impairment Screen (MIS) and animal naming…
If you have one copy of a gene called apoE4, then your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease are more than doubled. Moreover, if you carry two copies of apoE4, then you have a 12-fold risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Remarkably, some brilliant researchers have found a way to neutralize apoE4, albeit that the research is…
If you consume drinks that contain artificial sweeteners in preference to those that contain sugar, you have an increased risk of having a stroke or developing dementia. Compared to people who do not drink artificially sweetened drinks, the risk for the most common type of stroke is 2.96 times higher, and for all types of…
Recent research in humans shows that intermittent fasting results in greater diversity of the gut microbiota. Furthermore, intermittent fasting resulted in weight loss, reduced inflammation and enhanced immune response. In particular, intermittent fasting decreased sugar and increased dietary fibre. Unfortunately, human studies on the potential benefits of intermittent fasting for dementia have yet to be…
Toxic air pollution increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The closer you live to major roads, the higher the chances that you’ll develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Oddly, traffic air pollution makes no difference to your risk for Parkinson’s disease (PD) or multiple sclerosis (MS). What a remarkable statement!! I love research of this kind; this…
