Advances in Alzheimer's

Although this article was slightly old (dated in early January), Alzheimer's had always been a slightly confusing disease which needed some breakthroughs, and any advance is regarded as a good product of more hopeful change.

One of the approaches that was used to try and solve the cure of Alzheimer's is to improve the lack of synapses that were in the brain of Alzheimer's patients, since it was believed that the correlation between the low synaptic numbers and loss of memory in an Alzheimer's patient was also a causation.

This article expanded on two specific ways which improved conditions in Alzheimer's, although it didn't actually cure the disease overall. One of the unconventional methods that were discovered is a "nutritional drink" which is composed of uridine, choline, and DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid. This drink is also called "Souvenaid". These are natural nutrients which have already been supplied in the body, and is proven to be safe in supplemental amounts. However there is no link towards this and wellness in other aspects besides Alzheimer's. All 3 of the components are said to be beneficial all together, not when taken individually. This was used in a test of Alzheimer's patients, and was given a pretty high success rate in verbal recalling. This nutritional drink, unfortunately, hasn't improved all aspects of memory tasks, but there is more research to be done to see what more improvements the Souvenaid is capable of.

The other advance made in this field is through detection of Alzheimer's in early stages - in a form of an MRI called diffusion tensor imaging. Analysis of the hippocampus can lead to indication of whether or not Alzheimer's will be present in an individual in the later stages of life. The process is a nice breakthrough due to the fact that it can detect any changes in the brain that are age-associated, to also determine what other factors can be included for Alzheimer's or other diseases. This has been tested on 76 individuals and has given fairly accurate results.

This article interested me because Alzheimer's has been a disease that has given me interest to study. I am very interested in neuroscience and breakthroughs in neuroscience has always captivated me. I hope to research more in neuroscience in the future.

article link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/08/alzheimer.drink.scan/index.html

Ronita Roy