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…
Air pollution has traditionally been viewed as a threat to lung and heart health. Increasingly, however, research suggests that it may also affect the brain. Several large epidemiological studies have found that people living close to major roads have a modestly increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Although the increase in risk for any one…
Could Alzheimer’s disease (AD) be due to a viral cause? This idea links to the importance of olfactory impairment in the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. A few years ago an editorial was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Many luminaries in the field co-authored the paper. They discussed multiple studies…
Impaired sense of smell (anosmia) is an early warning sign of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome, Lewy-body dementia, HIV-related dementia, and multiple sclerosis. Anosmia may occur in other conditions, too, such as diabetes. Anosmia does not affect all patients with neurodegenerative illnesses, but it is nonetheless frequent enough to be…
Oral bacteria in Alzheimer’s brains. Rotten teeth are associated with dementia. Recently, researchers were amazed to find a seven-fold increase in bacterial counts in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The increase was mainly due to the presence of oral bacteria, the bugs that make up the microflora of the mouth. A number of…
