IU study finds caffeine boosts enzyme that could protect against dementia

Indiana University Bloomington Health Sciences News

A study by Indiana University researchers has identified 24 compounds – including caffeine – with the potential to boost an enzyme in the brain shown to protect against dementia.

The protective effect of the enzyme, called NMNAT2, was discovered last year through research conducted at IU Bloomington.

The new study appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.… [Continue Reading]

New data from the Rush Memory and Aging Project provide more evidence that staying physically active may protect the aging brain from Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

In a group of more than 700 elderly individuals free of dementia at baseline, a higher level of total daily physical activity, determined objectively via 24-hour actigraphy, was associated with a lower risk for the subsequent development of AD, as well as a slower rate of cognitive decline.

The association remained “robust” after accounting for a wide variety of potentially confounding factors, and supports efforts to encourage physical activity even in the very old, conclude Aron S. Buchman, MD, from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, and colleagues.

Their findings were published in the April 24 issue of Neurology.… [Continue Reading]

Fran Lowry

May 1, 2012 — Increased consumption of blueberries and strawberries appears to slow cognitive decline in older women, according to an analysis of data from the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS).

“Increasing berry intake appears to slow memory decline by up to 2.5 years,” lead author, Elizabeth E. Devore, ScD, from the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News. “By this, we mean that women eating the most berries vs. little to no berries had memory differences equivalent to women 2.5 years apart in age.”

The news study was published online April 25 in the Annals of Neurology.… [Continue Reading]

by Megan Brooks

May 2, 2012 — Six months of twice-weekly resistance training (RT) improved executive function, associative memory, and regional patterns of functional brain plasticity in a group of older women with probable mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

“We provide novel evidence that RT can benefit multiple domains in those at risk for dementia,” the researchers report.

“We found improvement in both cognitive and brain function with resistance training — not just maintenance — over the 6 months. Thus, our results imply that resistance training can delay the onset of dementia in older adults,” first author Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD, PT, from the Aging, Mobility, and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.

In a previous study reported by Medscape Medical News, she and her colleagues found that 12 months of twice-weekly RT significantly improved executive function in cognitively healthy older women. Their latest study found improvement after only 6 months and in women with MCI. Thus, the benefits of RT on executive function “may be more potent among those at greater risk for dementia,” the researchers say.… [Continue Reading]