Keeping the brain active through hobbies such as crosswords, puzzles, reading, writing and playing card games, can all postpone the start of symptoms of the condition.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that exercising the brain can help to protect against the disease in later life.

Experts warn that the number of people affected by dementia will spiral in coming decades, in part because of an ageing population.

Researchers looked at activities including crossword puzzles, playing board or card games, talking in groups, playing music, or even simply reading or writing.

They found that people aged between 75 and 85 who did an average of 11 of the activities every week tended to experience memory problems almost one year and four months later into the progression of the disease than those who did just four a week.

“The effect of these activities in late life appears to be independent of education,” said Charles Hall, who led the study. “These activities might help maintain brain vitality.

“Further studies are needed to determine if increasing participation… could prevent or delay dementia.”
The researchers found that for every additional activity an older person undertook a week the onset of rapid memory loss characteristic of the condition was delayed by an average of just over two months.

The study followed 488 older people over a five-year period, during which 101 of them developed dementia.
On average people who went on to develop the condition did one of the six activities every day, according to the findings, published in the journal Neurology.

The findings reinforce the idea that “cognitive reserve” could be built up by taking part in activities that exercise the brain.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:

“This study shows that exercising the brain may delay the start of memory loss in people who develop dementia.

“This adds to the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis that we can reap the benefits of stimulating our minds regularly, perhaps by doing crosswords, playing chess or adding up the shopping before getting to the till.

“Dementia risk can be reduced by eating a healthy diet, whilst keeping an active body and mind.

“With more research we may be able to find ways of preventing dementia. 1.4 million people in the UK will develop dementia within a generation, so we need to invest now.”

Around 700,000 people in Britain currently suffer from dementia, of which around 400,000 have Alzheimer’s, the most common form.

By Kate Devlin, Medical Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph 4th August 2009

Photo courtesy of Off beat mum

Researchers, looking into obesity, discovered that fatty foods not only send feelings of fullness to the brain but they also trigger a process that consolidates long term memories.

It believed that this is an evolutionary tool that enabled our distant ancestors to remember where rich sources of food were located.

Now they hope to develop drugs which mimic the effect of fat rich foods in order to boost memory in those suffering from brain disorders or who need to cement facts in their brain.

The team at the University of California found that oleic acids from fats are transformed into a compound called oleoylethanolamide (OEA) in the upper region of the small intestine.

OEA not only send hunger-curbing messages to the brain to increase feelings of fullness but also “causes memory consolidation, the process by which superficial, short-term memories are transformed into meaningful, long-term ones”, it was discovered.

Professor Daniele Piomelli, who led the study, said it works by activating memory-enhancing signals in the amygdala, the part of the brain involved in the consolidation of memories of emotional events.

Professor Piomelli said: “OEA is part of the molecular glue that makes memories stick.
“By helping mammals remember where and when they have eaten a fatty meal, OEA’s memory-enhancing activity seems to have been an important evolutionary tool for early humans and other mammals.”

He added that dietary fats are important for overall health, helping with the absorption of vitamins and the protection of vital organs.

While the human diet is now rich in fats, this was not the case for early humans, he said. In fact, fat-rich foods in nature are quite rare.

“Remembering the location and context of a fatty meal was probably an important survival mechanism for early humans,” he said. “It makes sense that mammals have this capability.”

The researchers, who published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that administering OEA to rodents improved memory retention in two different tests.

When cell receptors activated by OEA were blocked, memory retention effects decreased.
Prof Piomelli said drugs that mimic OEA are in clinical trials.

Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust said the research offered “fascinating” insights into the way we remember.

“When thinking about what constitutes a healthy diet, usually what’s good for the heart is also good for the head.”

“Better understanding of how memories are formed could lead to new treatments that help the brain when it becomes affected by Alzheimer’s.”

Richard Alleyne – Science Correspondent: 27 Apr 2009

Photo is courtesy of bitzi

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Now Daffodils are being farmed high on remote Welsh mountains – to help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. The flowers are the source of galantamine, one of only a handful of drugs known to help delay symptoms of the conditions. Galantamine is so rare that it is as valuable pound for pound as gold. Previously only extracted from wild snowdrops in the Balkans, it slows the process of moderate Alzheimer’s, which affects over 400,000 in the UK, or one in 14 of the population over 65, and has no known cure.

Stephen Head of Alzhelm, the company producing the 60 acres of daffodils near Powys, mid Wales, said: ‘To obtain it in its original form is very difficult, which is why this is such a breakthrough to be able to get sustainable levels of galantamine – we will be able to grow fields and fields of it.

‘The world market price per kilo of galantamine is roughly the same as gold. ‘As a product and a pharmaceutical ingredient its value comes firstly from its effectiveness, and also how difficult it is to produce. ‘It does stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s and give people a better quality of life for a much longer time.’

Experts say growing daffodils at heights of over 1000ft above sea level in the Welsh mountains exposes them to ‘stressful’ conditions which lead to galantamine being produced as a self-defence mechanism.

The Alzheimer’s Society welcomed the potential influx of cheaper drugs, although it pointed out that they may not be available to UK sufferers for up to ten years.

Chief executive Neil Hunt said: ‘All people with dementia deserve  access to drug treatments that give them precious time and quality of life when they need it most.

‘This new method of using daffodils may not benefit people with Alzheimer’s in the short term, but new techniques that help drive the cost of Alzheimer’s drugs down is an important investment for the future.’

The Daily Mail Reporter 19th April, 2009

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