In the past week, you may have seen a few news headlines that talked about the idea that Alzheimer’s disease may be contagious. I’ve seen headlines like  ”Alzheimer’s Disease Contagious Like Mad Cow,” “Some Cases of Alzheimer’s May Be Transmitted,” and “Can You ‘Catch’ Alzheimer’s Disease?” Those all sound pretty scary, like something out of a [...]

Today I got an email from the Alzheimer’s Association, with an offer for a downloadable paper titled “Generation Alzheimer’s: The Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers.” It’s a sobering look at how the aging of the baby boomers (the first of whom turned 65 earlier this month) will come with an extraordinarily high price in [...]

Over the last 20 years, the number of people in the U.S. who are 100 years old or older has tripled–meaning that now, nearly 100,000 Americans have been alive for a century or more. I have really been enjoying an interactive feature from the New York Times called “Secrets of the Centenarians – Life Before, [...]

A study showing that people who retire earlier have lower performance on cognitive tests. This is another piece of evidence that leading a brain-healthy lifestyle improves cognitive abilities later in life.

A recent study from the Mayo Clinic found that 16% of people aged 70 to 89 have MCI, with men showing higher rates than women.

“No man is an island,” John Donne famously wrote.  In recent years, neuroscientists have caught up with the wisdom of the 17th century poet in recognizing how important–in fact, essential–it is for us to stay connected and engaged with other people. Countless studies have shown maintaining rich, meaningful relationships and social interaction is a key [...]

Rush University study showed 52% reduction in cognitive decline for mentally active people.

A new study has untangled the connection between depression and dementia, providing clear evidence that depression is a risk factor for dementia. Prior to this finding, it was unclear to researchers whether depression increased the risk of developing dementia or if dementia led to increased depression. Researchers screened nearly 1,000 participants and found 125 who [...]

The beta-amyloid plaques that kill the neural tissue of people with Alzheimer’s disease accumulate in retinal tissue before other parts of the brain.  These plaques usually develop in the brain before there are symptoms of cognitive decline.  Since there is no way to detect plaques in the brain, detection in the retinas would be the [...]

A recent study published in the journal Neurology shows that high levels of mental activity may reduce some of the cognitive deficits characteristic of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study found that people with a mentally active lifestyle had high scores on learning and memory tests regardless of the amount of brain damage they had.  Those [...]