Alzheimer

Changes in cerebrospinal fluid may signal early Alzheimer's

By Alan Mozes, HealthDay

Updated 9h 57m ago

Searching for a better screen for early Alzheimer's disease, researchers think they have found a marker of change in the brain that precedes the onset of the disease by five to 10 years

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  Searching for a better screen for early Alzheimer's disease, researchers think they have found a marker of change in the brain that precedes the onset of the disease by five to 10 years.

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Searching for a better screen for early Alzheimer's disease, researchers think they have found a marker of change in the brain that precedes the onset of the disease by five to 10 years.

The indicator of trouble to come, they say, is a shift in the levels of specific components of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain and spinal cord. Among patients already diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a drop in such levels appears to be a sign of Alzheimer's years before symptoms develop.

The discovery, published in the January issue ofArchives of General Psychiatry, could potentially aid in the use of disease-modifying therapies, which are designed to work best if applied when a patient is still in the early stages of disease.

"These markers can identify individuals at high risk for future [Alzheimer's disease] at least five to 10 years before conversion to dementia," study author Dr. Peder Buchhave, of Lund University and Skane University in Sweden, noted in a journal news release. "Hopefully, new therapies that can retard or even halt progression of the disease will soon be available. Together with an early and accurate diagnosis, such therapies could be initiated before neuronal degeneration is too widespread and patients are already demented."/.../

Cariovascular Health in Adults: USA

• • Epidemiology and Prevention

Status of Cardiovascular Health in US Adults

Prevalence Estimates From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) 2003–2008

Christina M. Shay, PhD, MA; 

Hongyan Ning, MD, MS; 

Norrina B. Allen, PhD, MPH; 

Mercedes R. Carnethon, PhD; 

Stephanie E. Chiuve, ScD;

Kurt J. Greenlund, PhD*; 

Martha L. Daviglus, MD, PhD;

Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM

 

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Abstract

Background—The American Heart Association's 2020 Strategic Impact Goals define a new concept, cardiovascular (CV) health; however, current prevalence estimates of the status of CV health in US adults according to age, sex, and race/ethnicity have not been published.

Methods and Results—We included 14 515 adults (≥20 years of age) from the 2003 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Participants were stratified by young (20–39 years), middle (40–64 years), and older (≥65 years) ages. CV health behaviors (diet, physical activity, body mass index, smoking) and CV health factors (blood pressure, total cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, smoking) were defined as poor, intermediate, or ideal. Fewer than 1% of adults exhibited ideal CV health for all 7 metrics. For CV health behaviors, nonsmoking was most prevalent (range, 60.2%–90.4%), whereas ideal Healthy Diet Score was least prevalent (range, 0.2%–2.6%) across groups. Prevalences of ideal body mass index (range, 36.5%–45.3%) and ideal physical activity levels (range, 50.2%–58.8%) were higher in young adults compared with middle or older ages. Ideal total cholesterol (range, 23.7%–36.2%), blood pressure (range, 11.9%–16.3%), and fasting blood glucose (range, 31.2%–42.9%) were lower in older adults compared with young and middle-aged adults. Prevalence of poor CV health factors was lowest in young age but higher at middle and older ages. Prevalence estimates by age and sex were consistent across race/ethnic groups.

Conclusions—These prevalence estimates of CV health represent a starting point from which effectiveness of efforts to promote CV health and prevent CV disease can be monitored and compared in US adult populations.

Tobacco Industry strugle...

	General Messages by Dr. Nathaniel Wander
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Altria recently launched a new website titled 'Citizens for Tobacco Rights'.  On the face of it, it appears to be a tool mobilize 'adult smokers and dippers [to join] together to learn more about and take action on issues they care about' particular with regard to state legislators.  A look at its privacy policies, however, suggests it to be a marketing tool as well. http://www.tobaccorights.com/ctr/advocacy/default.aspx  Nathaniel Wander Corozal, Belize

The assault on universalism: how to destroy the welfare state

Indicado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja

Christmas 2011: Food for Thought

BMJ 2011; 343 doi: 10.1136/bmj.d7973 (Published 20 December 2011)

Cite this as: BMJ 2011;343:d7973

Martin McKee, professor of European public health1, 

David Stuckler, university lecturer2

Martin McKee and David Stuckler watch aghast as American examples are followed to destroy the European model of the welfare state

Christmas is a time to count our blessings, reflecting how they came to be. For people living in England this reflection is more relevant than ever, as the coalition government paves the way for the demise of the welfare state. This statement will be seen by many as reckless scaremongering. The welfare state, not only in Britain but also throughout western Europe, has proved extremely resilient.1 How could any government bring about such a fundamental change?

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Time for Outrage

Stephane Hessel and the Handbook of the Revolution

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011

Stephane Hessel's Time for Outrage has sold around 4 million copies in 30 languages since its October 2010 release

Remy Gabadar / AFP / Getty Images

• At 94 years of age, Stephane Hessel has already seen and done more than most people can even imagine. He witnessed the rise of fascism in Europe, fought the Nazis in the French Resistance; was interned in German death camps, designated for hanging, escaped and participated in the liberation of Paris; and worked as a diplomat, author and human-rights activist. His German father Franz Hessel was the basis for one of the title characters of the novel Jules and Jim, later a movie by François Truffaut. The character based on his mother is at the heart of the novel. Now Hessel himself is playing the role of instigator and analyst of the rolling wave of protest movements cropping up around the globe, and digging into what he calls the "indignation" pulsating through populations throughout the world.

"Whether we're talking about emerging countries like Brazil or India, or developed ones like the U.S. or Britain, we're seeing people stand up and demand that the widening gap of social injustice — the spreading division between the richest and less wealthy — be reversed and closed. That gap, that zone of injustice, is where the indignation is coming from," says Hessel, whose small bookIndignez-Vous (or under its English tile, Time for Outrage) has sold around 4 million copies in 30 languages since it was released in October 2010 (its initial print run was a mere 6,000). "It's been interesting to see how citizens from so many diverse countries and political systems have all, in their own manner, assembled around the belief that they can no longer actively or passively support political and economic systems that are failing to defend and advance the values and desires of their people. The common, essential factor in all those movements has been public opinion feeling that government, political parties and the general system have abandoned them and the wider interests of society to focus entirely on far narrower financial interests. People are saying, 'One way or another, that must change.'"/.../

A Year in Photographs: 2011

LightBox 365: A Year in Photographs

LightBox has compiled this yearbook for 2011, literally picking a photo for each day of this astonishing year. It is a remarkable memorial to its high and low points, to agony and to exhilaration. But let the pictures speak for themselves