Category: Dementia

Early onset-dementia typically starts in the 40s or 50s and can be mistaken for depression.

Loss of pleasure is a key sign of early-onset dementia, research finds.

Early-onset dementia is relatively rare, affecting around 10 percent of the total number of people who get the disease.

It typically starts in the 40s or 50s and can be mistaken for depression.

Early onset-dementia, though, is not about negative emotions, which characterise depression.

Instead, it is lacking the ability to appreciate positive experiences, like a good meal.

The inability to experience pleasure is technically known as anhedonia.

It is caused by degeneration in parts of the brain where rewards and pleasure are processed.

Research has revealed that people with frontotemporal dementia — a term that encompasses various types of early-onset dementia — have smaller frontal and striatal regions of the brain.

Other common signs of early-onset dementia include problems with language, apathy, decreased self-awareness, poor personal hygiene and even stealing and swearing.

Professor Muireann Irish, study co-author, said:

“Much of human experience is motivated by the drive to experience pleasure but we often take this capacity for granted.

But consider what it might be like to lose the capacity to enjoy the simple pleasures of life – this has stark implications for the wellbeing of people affected by these neurodegenerative disorders.

Our findings also reflect the workings of a complex network of regions in the brain, signaling potential treatments.

Future studies will be essential to address the impact of anhedonia on everyday activities, and to inform the development of targeted interventions to improve quality of life in patients and their families.”

The study compared brain scans of people with frontotemporal dementia with those with Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, usually starting in the 60s or 70s.

The results showed gray matter deterioration in the pleasure system of the brains of those with frontotemporal dementia, but not in those with Alzheimer’s.

→ Read on: reduce LDL cholesterol to lower risk of early-onset dementia.

The study was published in the journal Brain (Shaw et al., 2021).

Losing this sense is the strongest early sign of dementia.

Older people who cannot identify smells like lemons, paint-thinner and roses are at double the risk of developing dementia, new research finds.

Problems with other senses, such as vision, hearing and touch, can also be indicative of dementia.

However, difficulty with smell is the biggest sensory sign of dementia.

Other early signs of dementia include changes in sense of humour, increased apathy, memory problems and being unaware of those memory problems, being unable to understand sarcasm and insomnia.

Dr Willa Brenowitz, the study’s first author, said:

“Sensory impairments could be due to underlying neurodegeneration or the same disease processes as those affecting cognition, such as stroke.

Alternatively, sensory impairments, particularly hearing and vision, may accelerate cognitive decline, either directly impacting cognition or indirectly by increasing social isolation, poor mobility and adverse mental health.”

The study included almost 1,800 people in their 70s who were tracked for up to 10 years.

Around one-in-five developed dementia during that time.

The results showed that people with poor senses were at twice the risk of developing the disease.

While previous research has focused on smell, this study added together the effects of all the senses.

Dr Brenowitz said:

“The olfactory bulb, which is critical for smell, is affected fairly early on in the course of the disease.

It’s thought that smell may be a preclinical indicator of dementia, while hearing and vision may have more of a role in promoting dementia.”

People’s whose sense of smell declined by 10 percent were at a 19 percent greater risk of dementia, the study found.

Declines in hearing touch and vision were linked to a 1-to-3 percent level of increased risk.

Dr Kristine Yaffe, study co-author, said:

“We found that with deteriorating multisensory functioning, the risk of cognitive decline increased in a dose-response manner.

Even mild or moderate sensory impairments across multiple domains were associated with an increased risk of dementia, indicating that people with poor multisensory function are a high-risk population that could be targeted prior to dementia onset for intervention.”

The study was published in the journal  Alzheimer’s and Dementia (Brenowitz et al., 2020).

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia.

Drinking higher amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, research suggests.

Coffee was linked to reduced levels of amyloid plaques in the brain — these are thought to be key to Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia.

People who drank coffee also had higher levels of cognitive function.

Another recent study found that drinking tea or coffee may reduce the risk of stroke and dementia by around one-third.

Dr Samantha Gardener, the study’s first author, explained:

“We found participants with no memory impairments and with higher coffee consumption at the start of the study had lower risk of transitioning to mild cognitive impairment—which often precedes Alzheimer’s disease—or developing Alzheimer’s disease over the course of the study.”

Drinking coffee could be an easy way to delay Alzheimer’s disease, Dr Gardener said:

“It’s a simple thing that people can change.

It could be particularly useful for people who are at risk of cognitive decline but haven’t developed any symptoms.

We might be able to develop some clear guidelines people can follow in middle age and hopefully it could then have a lasting effect.”

Increase to two cups

The study suggests that for a person drinking one cup of coffee a day, it may be worth increasing to two cups a day.

Dr Gardener said:

“If the average cup of coffee made at home is 240g, increasing to two cups a day could potentially lower cognitive decline by eight percent after 18 months.

It could also see a five percent decrease in amyloid accumulation in the brain over the same time period.”

However, the study wasn’t able to determine the maximum number of cups of coffee that is beneficial or whether caffeination or adding milk make any difference.

Dr Gardener said:

“We need to evaluate whether coffee intake could one day be recommended as a lifestyle factor aimed at delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.”

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (Gardener et al., 2021).

The peanut butter test for Alzheimer’s requires only a dollop of peanut butter and a ruler.

Using only a ruler and a teaspoon of peanut butter, researchers at the University of Florida are developing a test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (Stamps et al, 2013).

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.

The test relies on the fact that one of the first areas of the brain to be affected by Alzheimer’s is the sense of smell.

In the test, a patient blocks their right nostril and a teaspoon of peanut butter is moved upwards towards their nose while they breathe normally.

This is then repeated for the other nostril.

Peanut butter was used because it is a well-known smell in the US, that is both unique, and difficult to mix up with anything else.

Peanut butter test for Alzheimer’s

In the study, people without cognitive problems could smell the peanut butter when it was, on average, 17cm below their left nostrils.

However, those with suspected Alzheimer’s couldn’t smell the peanut butter until it was 5cm away.

This difference in smell was only seen when those with suspected Alzheimer’s breathed through their left nostrils.

Breathing through their right nostrils, they performed the same as the control group.

The reason that it’s the left nostril, rather than the right is:

• The olfactory network is mostly found in the left half of the brain, and it’s the left hemisphere that often degenerates more than the right in Alzheimer’s.
• In contrast to other senses, smells detected by the left nostril are mostly processed by the left side of the brain.

Cautions about this study

The test could provide a cheap and reasonably easy addition to other methods of detecting Alzheimer’s, which are often expensive or invasive.

The challenge, however, will be whether it can distinguish between Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, which also cause problems with the sense of smell.

Critics of this study have pointed to the small sample size and the fact that another study on the peanut butter test for Alzheimer’s has failed to find the effect (Doty et al., 2014).

Image credits: University of Florida

Some meats increase dementia risk, others reduce it, new research finds.

A single rasher of bacon each day raises the risk of dementia by 44 percent, a study finds.

In fact, eating just 25g of any processed meat per day was linked to increased risk.

Common processed meats include sausages, corned beef, salami, and dried meat.

Processed meat refers to anything that is not sold fresh, with processing including curing, salting and smoking.

However, not all meat is bad in this context.

People who ate 50g of unprocessed (fresh) red meat per day, including pork, beef or veal, had a 19 percent reduced risk of developing dementia.

Dementia affects up to one in 12 people over 60, with Alzheimer’s being the most common form, accounting for around 60 percent of cases.

Ms Huifeng Zhang, the study’s first author, said:

“Worldwide, the prevalence of dementia is increasing and diet as a modifiable factor could play a role.

Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption, to increased risk of a range of non-transmissible diseases.”

The study used data on almost half-a-million people from the UK Biobank.

The Biobank is a long-term project that tracks the well-being of volunteers in the UK, including genetic and health data.

Risk factors for developing dementia include being older, poorer, smoking, and being less physically active.

There are also genetic risk factors.

On top of these, though, eating more processed meat increased the risk of dementia substantially.

Ms Zhang said:

“Further confirmation is needed, but the direction of effect is linked to current healthy eating guidelines suggesting lower intakes of unprocessed red meat could be beneficial for health.”

This study is believed to be the first to link increased dementia risk to specific amounts of processed meats.

Professor Janet Cade, study co-author, said:

“Anything we can do to explore potential risk factors for dementia may help us to reduce rates of this debilitating condition.

This analysis is a first step towards understanding whether what we eat could influence that risk.”

→ Read on: Beat Dementia: 8 Changes Your Brain Will Thank You For

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Zhang et al., 2021).

Adopting just one of these healthy habits reduces the rate of dementia by one-quarter.

A 35-year study reveals that people who followed four or five out of five healthy habits had 60 percent lower levels of dementia and cognitive decline with ageing.

The five behaviours are:

1. Taking regular exercise.
2. Non-smoking.
3. Maintaining a low body weight.
4. Having a healthy diet.
5. Low alcohol intake.

The most important of these factors, the researchers found, was taking regular exercise.

Exercise provided the largest protective effect against cognitive decline and dementia.

The study’s lead author, Professor Peter Elwood, said:

“The size of reduction in the instance of disease owing to these simple healthy steps has really amazed us and is of enormous importance in an aging population.

What the research shows is that following a healthy lifestyle confers surprisingly large benefits to health — healthy behaviors have a far more beneficial effect than any medical treatment or preventative procedure.”

Good for heart and head

Even managing just one of these lifestyle changes would be enough to cut the risk of developing dementia by one-quarter.

The conclusions come from a study of 2,235 men from the UK who have been followed over a 35-year period (Elwood et al., 2013).

One of the main aims of the study was to look at the connections between lifestyle, cognitive decline and disease over 35 years.

Along with the benefits to the brain of these five lifestyle changes, there were considerable physical health benefits.

Dr Doug Brown, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said:

“We have known for some time that what is good for your heart is also good for your head, and this study provides more evidence to show that healthy living could significantly reduce the chances of developing dementia.”

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