Interesting Content in UW Dimensions Magazine

I just received my pdf copy of Dimensions magazine, Spring/Summer 2019 issue, published by the UW Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.  It is chock full of really interesting material.  But if you don't have time to read it, here are my takeaways.

Voice Biomarkers

An article on voice biomarkers was especially significant to me.  Why?  Because I was a participant in some of the research behind the article.

Some time ago I participated in research in which I periodically sent recordings of my voice to be analyzed.  They were looking for clues to the emergence of neurodegenerative disease in changes in someone's voice.  I had been waiting for a long time to hear the outcome of the research, and the article marked where it's now at.

The goal of the research is to be able to take a recording or series of recordings of someone's voice and reliably find indication of AD, ALS, early Parkinson's, and frontotemporal degeneration -- and be able to distinguish them.  They're not there yet, but the researchers are optimistic that, with a lot more voice samples (many more), they'll be able to do this.

I believe this direction of research has basis for optimism.  I have always felt that my own voice did begin to change at about the time my disease was diagnosed.  My perception is that it has varied over the course of time in ways that I can detect, although no one else seems to notice.

Bilingualism and Neurodegenerative Diseases

There was a brief summary article about research into how disease can affect both first languages and acquired second languages.  Researchers would like to know several things, including answering the commonly asked question, does bilingualism confer a protective effect for neurodegenerative diseases, notably AD.  The article noted that, so far, the evidence is conflicting,

The actual research did not study AD, but rather something called primary progressive aphasia, or PPA.  PPA is a neurodegenerative disorder that impairs language abilities over time, such as speaking and word finding.  The main finding so far is that PPA impairs both first and second languages in about the same way.

The article talked about comparing people who's first language is English and their second language is Spanish.  I said, "Hey, that's me!"  I began learning Spanish on my 59th birthday which was in 2008.  My first symptoms of AD (balance problems) probably began in 2012.

My neurologist at Harborview was one of the credited researchers for this study, and she wrote the article for the magazine.

Busting Myths about Alzheimer’s Treatments and Diets

The myth-busting article goes very well with the article I cited in my March 11 post about the FDA going after supplement snake oil salesmen.  Consistent with what I wrote in Beating the Dementia Monster, people will be attracted to supplements when there is a terrible problem, but medical science has so little to offer.  But, as noted in the 2019 Alzheimer's Association Facts and Figures Report, no supplement has been shown scientifically to reverse, stop, or even slow the advance of AD.

The article began by discussing what can go wrong when a hypothesis is accepted before it's properly tested.  It recalled how, in 1965, some scientists found that injecting rabbits with a aluminum salts could produce some of the physiological changes associated with AD.  Subsequent research found that human uptake of aluminum could not be correlated with an increased risk of developing AD, but nevertheless there was great anxiety about using aluminum in cooking utensils and other applications.  These included, for example, body deodorants.  Even today, aluminum cookware sometimes carries warnings about a link between aluminum and AD.

In 2013, a researcher at the UW Harborview Brain Wellness Center had some of his research published in the New England Journal of Medicine correlating blood glucose levels with risk of dementia.  This finding was a motivator behind a New York Times best seller, The Grain Brain.  But The Grain Brain seriously distorts the research.  It infers that you can control AD risk by controlling dietary intake of gluten-heavy grains that tend to have a higher glycemic index than fruits and vegetables.  Grains would therefore produce larger changes in blood sugar, and eating more grains will increase your risk for dementia.  The researchers who originated the data reject this conclusion, but The Grain Brain is still a best seller on Amazon.  Medical experts are concerned that the erroneous conclusions will lead people to remove beneficial foods from the diet for invalid reasons.

The neurology researchers went after the coconut oil fad, pointing out that it can actually increase AD risk, not help.  This occurs because coconut oil is is a highly saturated fat, and saturated fat consumption is associated with higher risk of AD.  (The MIND diet pretty much eliminates saturated fats.)  The researchers noted that moving from a diet heavy with saturated fats to one with unsaturated fats can provide a benefit for blood pressure equal to starting on a statin drug.  Bottom line:  throw out your coconut oil and use olive oil.

The article had an interesting discussion of the Keto diet, which has been touted as good for brain health.  And maybe it is, but not necessarily across the board.  If you're interested, you should read the article.  Apparently there are some scenarios in which the Keto diet can help, and others in which it may hurt.  But the article concludes that it's such a difficult diet to maintain, that you should try other options.

The article ends with a plea for common sense.  Eat a balanced diet free of what we know is junk and get plenty of exercise.  The Mediterranean and MIND diets fill that bill for diet.  The Mediterranean diet has us eating what we know is good, and the MIND diet seems to improve on that.  But -- the jury is still out on the MIND diet.  The article noted that there is a major study on the MIND diet, but we won't see results until April 2021.  It then goes on to emphasize the importance of exercise.  It contrasts the contradictory evidence around diet and brain health with the unambiguous connection between an active lifestyle and brain health.