alzheimers (Page 6)

We’ve told you about the latest on autism, AIDS and bird flu?now we present the latest news on Alzheimer’s, the frightening disease that makes time meaningless.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have successfully restored normal memory and brain functioning to mice suffering from Alzheimer?s disease. They have identified an enzyme that is required for normal brain function but that is impaired in mice that are bred to develop Alzheimer’s. When the enzyme?s function is elevated, the mice regain the ability to form new memories.
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Scientists once told us not to cook with aluminum pans or foil in order to avoid Alzheimer’s, but then decided it had no effect on the disease. Now the subject has come up again, since researchers have found the disease is more common in regions of Italy with high levels of aluminum in their drinking water. The confusion comes because there are two types of aluminum. Monomeric?single molecule?aluminum is the dangerous kind that kills human cells. The kind of aluminum used in pots and pans is made of multiple molecules and does not appear to affect human cells. “There is almost no evidence that the cookware is dangerous,” says researcher Paolo Prolo.
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Alzheimer?s disease may be more common among people with a small waist and large hips than it is among people with the opposite proportions, researchers suggest. The measurement of the waist relative to the hips, called the waist-to-hip ratio, measures the distribution of body fat. People carrying extra weight around their waist (a ?high’? waist-to-hip ratio) are thought to be at increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes compared with those carrying extra weight around their hips (a ?low? waist-to-hip ratio). Dr. Eric B. Larson and colleagues from the University of Washington in Seattle found that the group with the lowest waist-to-hip ratios were about three times more likely to develop Alzheimer?s disease than those with a high waist-to-hip ratio.
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