All Posts Tagged With: "Alzheimer’s"

Good news, coffee addicts: your brain is safe! A new study from the University of Kuopio in Finland just published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease this month says that if you drink coffee, you’re less likely to get Alzheimer’s. Lead researcher, Miia Kivipelto says: “Middle-aged people who drank between three and five cups of coffee a day lowered their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by between 60 and 65 percent later in life.”

So Boomers, drink up! But not too much. A separate recent study has shown a connection between heavy coffee drinking and hallucinations. As always, it’s a delicate balance.

Filed under: News

Yesterday on its Health Blog, The Wall Street Journal is reporting on advances in Alzheimer’s treatments.

Alzheimer’s is on the rise, but scientists are making progress on treatments they think may finally make a dent in the disease.

But as Forbes reports, researchers still aren’t certain about the cause of the illness. That gap in knowledge means that a range of drugs that aim to clear the brain of amyloid plaque, clumps of protein fragments that are one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, may never work.

It’s distressing to hear that they’re still so unsure about the disease, but at least they feel like they’re getting somewhere. Read the rest of the post here.

It’s even more distressing when you see the numbers that the Alzheimer’s Association report:

5.2 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease now.

7.7 million Americans will have it by 2030.

71,696 Deaths from Alzheimer’s in 2005.

45% Increase in Alzheimer’s deaths since 2000.

$148 billion Yearly cost of treating and caring for these patients.

The print edition of the WSJ’s “Blog Watch” section last week listed a few Alzheimer’s-related blogs that they’ve been keeping an eye on:

-Living with Alzheimers’
-The Yellow Wallpaper
-MYSA.com’s Alzheimer’s blog

Are there any others that you think are good?

Filed under: Boomers