Reports from Beijing say family doctors may come to recommend fasting two days a week. Researchers argue intermittent fasting, holding intake to 500-800 calories on fasting days, can deliver benefits similar to chronic caloric restriction, lowering a cancer-linked growth factor and blood fats.
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Disease
Depression in diabetics linked to higher risk for dementia
Among 19,239 diabetes patients aged 30 to 75 followed three to five years, 2.1 percent of those with depression were diagnosed with dementia versus 1.0 percent of those with diabetes alone, double the risk, Wayne Katon's team reports in Archives of General Psychiatry.
Disease
Speaking a second language delays onset of dementia
York University researchers compared 450 Alzheimer's patients, half of them bilingual, and found diagnosis came about four years later in those speaking two languages, whose scans showed more advanced deterioration at similar function. The study did not prove a second language lowers dementia risk.
Food
Mediterranean diet and physical exercise cut risk of Alzheimer's disease
Following 1,880 dementia-free elderly New Yorkers, researchers recorded 282 Alzheimer's cases over 5.4 years. Those adhering most closely to a Mediterranean diet were 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed, and the most physically active up to 33 percent less likely.
Healthcare
Hospice care good for nursing home residents with advanced dementia
Researchers followed 323 nursing home residents with advanced dementia and their proxies for up to 18 months. The 26 percent referred to hospice more often received opioids for pain and treatment for breathlessness, and their proxies reported fewer unmet needs in the last week of life.
Food
Eating fish may not help Alzheimer's disease or dementia - study
Following 5,395 older adults in Rotterdam for 10 years, with 465 dementia cases, researchers found no association between eating fish or fatty fish, or omega-3 intake, and the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
Lifestyle
Cigarette smoke boosts Alzheimer's risk
Tracking 21,123 health plan members over 23 years, researchers led from the University of Eastern Finland found people who smoked more than two packs a day were twice as likely to develop dementia, 2.57 times as likely to get Alzheimer's and 2.7 times as likely to develop vascular disease.
Lifestyle
Cigarette smoking in midlife linked to Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia
The FDA proposed nine larger text warnings and colour graphic images for cigarette packs and advertisements, taking public comment from November 2010 to January 2011. HHS puts smoking deaths at 443,000 a year, and studies also link smoking to dementia.
Food
Drinking beet juice daily could prevent dementia?
In 14 adults aged 70 and over, MRI scans taken an hour after a high-nitrate breakfast that included 16 ounces of beet juice showed increased blood flow to the white matter of the frontal lobes, an area linked to the degeneration that leads to dementia.
Vitamins
High intake of dietary vitamin E may reduce dementia risk
Rotterdam researchers followed 5,395 people aged 55 and older for about a decade and found those in the highest third of dietary vitamin E intake were 25 percent less likely to develop dementia. Vitamin C, beta carotene and flavonoids showed no link once confounders were taken into account.
Supplements
Fish oil DHA doesn't help Alzheimer's disease - What you need to know
In an 18-month JAMA trial, 2 grams of DHA daily did not slow decline in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's: cognitive scores shifted 8.27 points against 7.98 for placebo, and an MRI substudy showed no effect on brain volume.
Vitamins
Could vitamin D deficiency explain sepsis risk in elderly people?
A JAMA study of 516 survivors of severe sepsis, average age 77, found 60 percent worsened in cognitive or physical function, and survivors were 3.33 times more likely to develop moderate or severe cognitive impairment. One health observer suggested vitamin D deficiency may play a part.
Vitamins
Could This be the Key Factor Spiking the Rise in Dementia and Alzheimer's?
In a two-year trial of 168 volunteers with mild cognitive impairment, brains of those taking high-dose folic acid, B6 and B12 shrank 0.76 percent a year against 1.08 percent on placebo. Mercola notes about half of people diagnosed with MCI go on to develop Alzheimer's within five years.
Disease
Worldwide dementia care costs $601 billion in 2010 - report
Alzheimer's Disease International puts 2010 care costs for 35.6 million people with dementia at $601 billion, more than 1 percent of global GDP. The report expects cases to double by 2030 and more than triple by 2050, with costs rising fastest in the developing world.
Vitamins
B vitamins prevent dementia
In an Oxford trial, 168 volunteers with mild cognitive impairment took high-dose B12, folate and B6 for two years; brain shrinkage averaged 0.76 percent a year against 1.08 percent on placebo. Researchers did not test cognition, and a Dutch trial using lower doses found no benefit.
Drug
Cerebrospinal Fluid Test Predicts Alzheimer's Disease
Three cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers formed a signature found in 90 percent of Alzheimer's patients, 72 percent of people with mild cognitive impairment and 36 percent of cognitively normal adults, Archives of Neurology reports. Having the profile does not mean a person will develop the disease.
Diet
Plant-based diet may help depression, dementia
Disease
An Expert Guide to Reducing Your Dementia Risk
An expert panel reviewed more than 70 papers and listed steps that may cut dementia risk by as much as 20 percent: exercise, avoiding obesity, lowering blood pressure, not smoking, eating a Mediterranean diet, staying socially active and training the brain.
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