The Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the University of Washington is closely associated with UW's Harborview Brain Wellness Center. This is where I get care for my disease. ADRC is also associated with the research unit at the Seattle VA hospital where I participated in the insulin trial I described in Beating the Dementia Monster. I've become acquainted with a number of people in research at both Harborview and at the VA hospital.
Each quarter, ADRC publishes a periodical named Dimensions. I read this carefully whenever it comes out because it often contains very interesting news and information from an important research center. In the past, I've posted interesting things here that I've learned from reading Dimensions.
2021 is the 35th anniversary of the ADRC (founded in 1986), and the 35th anniversary issue was a blowout. You can download the pdf version here. It was, of course, celebratory, but, after reading it carefully, I also learned several new things.
One thing I learned was how central the ADRC has been in developing our understanding of the genetic component of Alzheimer's disease, especially the "familial," young onset form. Three genes have been identified as causing familial Alzheimer's disease, and researchers at ADRC were particularly instrumental in identifying the third -- presenilin 2.
Dr. Elaine Peskind was principal investigator for the SNIFF (insulin) study at the Seattle VA site. (She skillfully took a sample of my spinal fluid, among other things.) In the article, "Research Mystery for the Ages," she provided research results concluding that men and women are equally at risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. This refutes the existing dogma we describe in Beating the Dementia Monster that women are more susceptible to Alzheimer's disease than men. Apparently there has been bias in studies that have relied on volunteers, but the Framingham Heart study (a longitudinal study) and a similar longitudinal study out of Rotterdam have been evaluating much more randomized study populations. These seem to have found no statistically significant greater risk for women of developing Alzheimer's disease.
The article "Prescriptions for Prevention" reviews many things we already know about dealing with Alzheimer's disease, and it covers the same ground (and then some) that we included in "The Dementia Toolkit" of the second edition of Beating the Dementia Monster. But one thing that jumped out at me was a conclusion that head injury can't be correlated with Alzheimer's disease. With Parkinson's disease and some other dementias, yes, but not with Alzheimer's disease. This is different from what I understood earlier.
What wasn't surprising to readers of this blog was a discussion of the frequent ineffectiveness of dietary supplements. This was discussed in the article "Vitamin Supplements and Nutrition." It identified research that correlated various agents in certain foods with reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease, but when these agents are separated from their food matrix, they lose most of their power to do any good.
Of course, in "Prescriptions for Prevention," much was made of the key dynamic of physical fitness. They don't call for the level of aerobic exercise that I do, but the article is about prevention, not treatment of an established disease process.
Something I considered but didn't discuss in Beating the Dementia Monster was hearing loss. There is certainly statistical research correlating hearing loss with Alzheimer's disease, but it didn't make any sense to me. Until now. "Prescriptions for Prevention" made a connection between hearing loss and social isolation. In Beating the Dementia Monster, we do discuss the very important association between social connection and Alzheimer's disease. The correlation between Alzheimer's disease and hearing loss now make sense to me.
Something else interesting was an interview with Dr. George Martin, MD, Emeritus Professor of Pathology at UW and founding director of the ADRC. He's still active in research and played a pioneering role in identifying the genetic component of Alzheimer's disease. But founding director? How old is that guy, anyway? 93, and still at it. I presume his picture in the magazine is current, but he looks younger than me!
I found this issue of Dimensions to be very rich in content, and I recommend downloading it and reading it.
No comments:
Post a Comment