News of the approval of the new Alzheimer’s drug has hit the headlines this week. Lecanemab has been approved by the MHRA, the UK’s regulator, but has been rejected by NICE so it will not be available on the NHS. Lecanemab is part of a new class of drugs that is emerging. It slows the […]

A recent study has found that the risk of dying from neurodegenerative disease is almost 3.5 times higher for footballers. However research is at an early stage and there’s currently no suggestion that anyone should stop playing football. Regular physical activity – including football – is a good way to reduce the risk of dementia and conditions such as heart disease.

In a new study, researchers designed a bathing cap-style head device, called the MemorEM, which was used to deliver electromagnetic waves to the brain. The purpose of this was to try to dissolve what are known as oligomers – groups of abnormal proteins – as they were forming. There was some sign of improvements on tests of thinking and memory in most of the people taking part in the study. This is an experimental, early-stage study that looked primarily at safety, so it cannot tell us for sure if the treatment works.

Researchers have found that use of anticholinergics was linked with between a 6% and 49% increased risk of dementia, depending on the dose and duration of use. With this type of study, it is always difficult to prove direct cause and effect. Nevertheless, this is an important finding that needs looking into further. But it’s important that people do not stop taking any prescribed medicine without speaking to their doctor. The risk from stopping the medicine may be far higher than any dementia risk.

In 2 linked studies, researchers found that people who said they did puzzles regularly did better on tests of cognitive ability. However, the research does not definitely show that doing puzzles made brains “sharper”. Or that doing puzzles staves off dementia in later life. It could be that people who have better cognitive abilities are more likely to do number or word puzzles in the first place.

This article has been reproduced from the NHS website. “Alzheimer’s disease can be spotted through simple eye test,” reports the Daily Telegraph. A new study has found that people with Alzheimer’s had fewer blood vessels and less blood flow in the retina (back of their eye). The Alzheimer-linked eye changes were detected by an eye test that uses […]

This article has been reproduced from the NHS website. “Millions of women who take HRT pills may face a greater risk of Alzheimer’s,” warns the Mail Online. A study identified all postmenopausal women in Finland who’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease over a 14-year period. It compared their use of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) with a group of […]

This article has been reproduced from the NHS website. “An ‘exercise pill’ mimicking the effects of a gym workout could prevent Alzheimer’s disease,” the Daily Mirror reports. The “pill” is actually a reference to a protein called irisin. Irisin has been dubbed the “exercise hormone” because previous research found it’s released from muscles in response to […]