In the News
New tests for Alzheimer's
The Straits Times, Singapore
July 22, 2009
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CHICAGO - PROTEINS in spinal fluid accurately detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease in patients and could pave the way for better drug research, Swedish researchers said on Tuesday.
Several teams have been working on better ways to detect early-stage Alzheimer's disease in hopes of developing drugs that can fight it before it causes too much damage.
'We confirmed in a large multi-centre study that these (cerebrospinal fluid) biomarkers may identify early-stage Alzheimer's disease, which has previously been suggested in earlier smaller studies,' Dr Niklas Mattsson of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association, wrote in an e-mail.
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Dr Mattsson said the current study in patients with mild cognitive impairment or MCI, a precursor to Alzheimer's disease, strengthens the argument that proteins in spinal fluid can accurately show who has early-stage disease.
This may also be useful in structuring smaller clinical trials to test whether a drug is working. Current diagnostic measures, such as neurological and memory tests, are less accurate, forcing drug companies to run large, expensive clinical trials to show their drugs work.
'The drug industry certainly fears failure of these large scale studies and biomarkers may save millions of dollars in addition to allowing a more rapid development of efficient drugs,' Dr Mattsson said. -- REUTERS
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Dementia on the rise
But few know warning signs
By April Chong
The Straits Times, Singapore
July 8, 2009
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MORE Singaporeans are getting dementia but few can identify beyond one out of its 10 common symptoms, revealed a recent survey.
And only one in a thousand, or 0.1 per cent, surveyed by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) could name three signs.
The most-commonly identified symptom is the loss of cognitive function, such as the ability to count, and only 60 per cent of the 4,500 survey respondents knew that.
More than nine in 10 did not know that losing the ability to recognise family members or carry out daily activities like teeth brushing are other common signposts.
Dementia, which includes its most common form known as Alzheimer's disease, causes the brain cells to die at a faster rate than normal, leading to failing memory, decreased ability to solve problems and communicate, and personality changes.
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And this is not a normal part of ageing, said Dr Koh Yang Huang, senior deputy director of HPB's adult health division.
To get the general public to recognise the disease early, HPB is launching a dementia awareness campaign to highlight the warning signs.
The campaign involves a series of programmes, including a play titled 'Don't forget to remember me' and a roving exhibition.
There are now at least 20,000 people here with dementia, and the number is expected to jump to 45,000 in a decade.
The government is already preparing to meet the increase, with the building of two new nursing homes to take in elderly with dementia and upping the number of dementia day-care centres.
For more campaign details, visit http://www.healthymind.sg or call 1800 223 1313.
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Middle-aged singletons at higher dementia risk: study
ChannelNewsAsia
July 3, 2009
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PARIS ? People who live alone in middle age face nearly double the risk of developing cognitive problems in later life compared with married or cohabiting counterparts, according to a study published Friday.
Researchers interviewed 2,000 people selected randomly in the Kuopio and Joensuu regions of eastern Finland in the 1970s and 80s, when their average age was 50.4 years.
A total of 1,409 of the volunteers were then re-examined in 1998 for cognitive impairment, when their ages ranged from 65-79.
Of these, 57 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia; 82 had mild cognitive impairment; the remaining 1,270 were otherwise healthy.
"People living without a partner at mid-life had around twice the risk of developing cognitive impairment in later life compared with people living with a partner," the study found.
The risk was roughly triple among those who had been widowed or divorced in mid-life and were not living in partnership in later life.
Education, smoking habits and other variables that are known to affect cognitive impairment were all taken into account.
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The investigators found a big difference between the sexes.
Compared with co-habitants, men who lived alone in mid-life were two and a half times likelier to develop cognitive impairment later in life. The risk for women, though, was 1.87 times.
They also found a powerful link between Alzheimer's, living alone and a variant of a gene called apolipoprotein E-e4 which makes a protein associated with this disorder.
The paper, headed by Miia Kivipelto, an associate professor in ageing research at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, is published online by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Living with a partner "might imply cognitive and social challenges" that help shield against dementia, but why this could be so has to be explained, the authors say.
In 2005 an estimated 25 million people had dementia, and the tally is expected to reach 81.1 million in 2040, according to figures quoted in the study. - AFP/sh
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Dementia patients to rise
By Theresa Tan
The Straits Times, Singapore
March 25, 2009
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SOME 18,000 people here have dementia and the number of such patients will more than double by 2020.
Yet many Singaporeans are still clueless about the disease, Mr Lim Boon Heng, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said on Wednesday at the 24th Conference of Alzheimer's Disease International.
The minister in charge of ageing issues said: 'Many people still think that dementia is a normal part of ageing. Many of us joke about having a 'senior's moment' when we forget a name or number.
'Although it is the old who have dementia, I don't have to tell the many experts gathered here that dementia is a disease, not a normal part of ageing.'
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Mr Lim made the point to highlight the importance of recognising and fighting the illness, which affects the brain, causing brain cells to die at a faster rate than normal, leading to failing memory, personality changes among other things. Alzheimer's is one of two main types of dementia.
Singapore has taken various steps to tackle the dementia problem, Mr Lim said, for example, by teaching frontline staff to spot seniors with mental problems, promoting active ageing, among other efforts. The Health Ministry will also ramp up its efforts to support those afflicted with dementia and their care-givers.
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Though most dementia patients are old people, dementia is NOT a normal part of ageing.
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