The Dollars and Sense of Alzheimer’s

June 19, 2015 by

June 19, 2015

By Medical Discovery News

As people age, they begin to worry about developing dementia and its most common cause, Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that can affect your cognitive abilities, the ability to function in daily life, and orientation. If that’s not devastating enough, those with Alzheimer’s only live four to eight years on average after diagnosis.

In America, Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death. Today 5.1 million of those 65 or older are living with this disease, a number that is only expected to grow as the population ages – by 2050 it is projected to affect 13.5 million of those 65 or older. The few drugs readily available only moderate the symptoms, as there is no way to cure, slow, or prevent Alzheimer’s.

Recently, the Alzheimer’s Association published a report called “Changing the Trajectory of Alzheimer’s Disease: How a Treatment by 2025 Saves Lives and Dollars.” It focuses on the costs associated with a theoretical treatment that could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s for five years. If such a thing were discovered, it could have a huge impact on people’s lives and their financial.

Since Alzheimer’s is a disease of older Americans, treatments for it are mostly funded by Medicaid and Medicare. Currently, Medicare covers 80 percent of the total costs of Alzheimer’s care in America, which equates to $153 billion. By 2050, the total costs of caring for those with Alzheimer’s is expected to rise to $1.1 trillion, with Medicare allocating one-third of all its expenses to treating it.

Within the Alzheimer’s population, a higher proportion will be in severe stages of the disease by 2050, as opposed to early or moderate stages. In the early stage of the disease, people can continue everyday functions and may appear symptom-free. They do have deficits in their abilities to think and learn, but the financial impact and burden on family members are low. In the moderate stage, memory lapses, inability to express thoughts, and confusion become apparent. Finally, in the severe stage, people have trouble taking care of themselves and require extensive daily care. In 2050, almost half of those affected will be in the severe stage.

The Alzheimer’s Assocation presents a case for funding biomedical research now, before the human and economic costs can be realized. For the sake of argument, they describe a hypothetical new treatment that would delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms by five years. If such a thing were available by 2025, it would save $220 billion in its first five years. By 2050, 6 million fewer people would be affected by Alzheimer’s, saving families $90 billion in healthcare costs and the federal government $367 billion. Even if such research costs $2 billion a year starting today, a way to delay Alzheimer’s by just five years would pay for itself within three years.

Research from very basic studies on the brain to translational research leading to new therapeutics and early diagnostics are desperately needed. There are many promising studies that suggest a delay in the progression or even cure for Alzheimer’s are possible.

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The Teen Brain on Weed

April 25, 2015 by

April 24, 2015

By Medical Discovery News

A brain

It is now legal to use marijuana (recreationally and/or medically) in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia, and as more places debate legalizing the substance, more people are asking about its consequences on human health. There are many myths and misconceptions out there, but this is what science has to say about the subject.

As with all substances, the health effects depend on the potency, amount, and a person’s age. An independent scientific committee in the United Kingdom evaluated how harmful various drugs were based on 16 criteria and ranked heroin, crack cocaine, and methamphetamine as the most harmful drugs to individuals using them, and ranked alcohol, heroin, and crack cocaine as the drugs that cause the most harm to others. Marijuana ranks eighth, with slightly more than one-quarter the harm of alcohol.

Short-term use is associated with impaired short-term memory, making it difficult to learn and retain information while under the influence. Short-term use can also impair motor coordination, interfering with tasks such as driving. The overall risk of an accident doubles if a person drives soon after using marijuana. In comparison, those with blood alcohol levels above the legal limit are five times more likely to have an accident, and the combination of alcohol and marijuana is higher than either one alone.

Long-term or heavy use is associated with diminished life satisfaction and achievement overall. At high doses, marijuana can cause paranoia and psychosis, and long-term marijuana use increases the risk of developing schizophrenia or other chronic psychotic illnesses. Nine percent of all marijuana users, or 2.7 million people, develop an addiction to it. That figure jumps to 25-50 percent for those who use marijuana daily, and 17 percent of people who begin using marijuana as adolescents become addicted. Cannabis withdrawal syndrome is real and includes symptoms of irritability, sleep disturbance, dysphoria, craving, and anxiety.

Adults who occasionally use marijuana do so with little to no risk, but adolescent brains are not fully developed, making them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of marijuana. Using marijuana during adolescence can alter brain development, causing impaired cognition and lower IQs. This is probably because the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, affects the brain’s ability to make connections between neurons in certain regions of the brain. Adolescent marijuana users also have a smaller hippocampus, which is important in learning and memory, and a less active prefrontal cortex, which is important in cognitive tasks such as planning and problem-solving.

Since acute marijuana intoxication can impair cognitive functions for days, students who use marijuana may function well below their natural abilities, causing academic difficulties. High school dropouts do report higher marijuana usage than their peers. Some evidence suggests that these cognitive impairments could be long-lasting or permanent in long-term users who started at younger ages, which can impact their abilities to succeed academically and professionally.

There is no clear association between long-term marijuana use and any deadly disease, although chronic marijuana smokers have increased rates of respiratory infections and pneumonia and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. The effects of marijuana on a developing embryo and the effects of second-hand or third-hand marijuana smoke have not been well-studied, but as marijuana legalization continues to be an issue the science behind it will as well.

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Humanizing the Mouse

April 25, 2015 by

March 20, 2015

By Medical Discovery News

Humanizing the Mouse

In the 1986 horror movie “The Fly,” a scientist’s teleportation experiment goes awry when a fly lands in one of the teleportation pods and he undergoes a transformation into a part fly, part human monster. Today, science has given us the capability to create animal-human hybrids, although so far none of them has craved human flesh like they tend to do in the movies.

Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been introducing human genes into mice to study the effects on mouse brain function and capabilities. They are doing this in small steps, using genetic engineering techniques to introduce a specific, single human gene into a mouse. This will allow scientists to evaluate the impact of each human gene on the brain in another species. It’s not quite a monstrous Franken-mouse, but the results have definitely been revealing.

The human version of gene Fox2p is connected with language and speech development, a trait associated with the higher order brain function unique to humans. When this gene was introduced into mice in the experiment, they developed more complex neurons and more extensive circuits in their brains. Scientists wondered if this gene is responsible for the enhanced brain and cognitive abilities displayed in humans.

In the behavioral experiments at MIT, scientists placed mice in a maze and evaluated the reactions of mice harboring the Fox2p gene versus normal mice. The maze offered two modes of navigation to the mice: visual clues in the environment that were observable from within the maze and tactile clues in the pathways of the maze consisting of smooth or textured floor.

The hybrid mice learned to navigate the maze quickly, finishing it three times faster than normal mice. This cognitive enhancement or flexibility reflects the human capability of handling and processing information. The tactile information is handled by something called procedural or unconscious learning. However, the sight-derived clues represent declarative learning. It is the addition of the Fox2p gene that gave mice the ability to integrate both forms of learning.

Interestingly, if the visual clues or the tactile clues were removed, the hybrid mice did no better than the normal mice at navigating the maze. This might mean that the hybrid mice only performed better when they could utilize both forms of information. This ability to switch between and consider different forms of memory (procedural and declarative) is important and may explain in part why it is so important in human speech and language development.

Humanized animals are being used in a number of scientific fields to help us understand different elements of human physiology. Expect to see more of the humanization of animals in the future, but alas for you Sci-Fi fans – a Frankenmouse is not yet on the horizon.

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Staving Off Dementia

November 11, 2013 by

Nov. 8, 2013

By Medical Discovery News

“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened.”

While American novelist Mark Twain can invariably add his iconic sense of humor to any situation, it is no laughing matter when patients lose their memories and cognitive function to dementia. And for their family members, there is hardly anything harder than caring for a loved one who can no longer remember them or any shared experiences. But lowering a person’s risk of dementia may be as simple as changing their lifestyle.

The incidence of dementia increases with age. As the average age of Americans increase, the number of people with dementia also increases. In 2010, more than 30 million people worldwide had dementia, and this figure is estimated to more than triple by 2050.

Despite the many medical advances over the past 20 years, there are no effective pharmacological therapies for dementia yet. Some drugs are being evaluated and still others are in development, but it could be some time before there is a truly successful treatment for this disease. 

However, studies have uncovered risk factors that can lead to dementia, such as low physical and mental activity, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The good news is that all these risk factors can be controlled by changes in a person’s lifestyle and behavior.

A group of scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm examined the effects of lifestyle modification on dementia risks. One of the strongest correlations to reducing the risk of dementia is increasing physical activity. Changing from a sedentary lifestyle to one with at least moderate physical activity will also improve cognitive performance. Both aerobic exercise and strength training may delay of the onset of dementia. 

For those with nutritional deficiencies, taking vitamin supplements did help prevent dementia onset, but those with normal levels did not affect their dementia risk by taking supplements. 

Computer games have become a popular way to enhance mental abilities in older people. There are some positive effects of gaming on cognitive performance, but these effects decline with age.  A recent study showed that improvements in language skills and reasoning abilities lasted for a full year after computerized training. While encouraging, more clinical trials are needed to establish the benefits of these activities on cognitive functions and the delay of dementia.

For now, the best advice to delay or prevent dementia is to engage in physical exercise and maintain a healthy weight and nutrition.

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