Air pollution may shorten telomers in babies

A study conducted before and after the 2004 closure of a coal-burning power plant in Tongliang, China, found children born before the closure had shorter telomeres than those conceived and born after the plant stopped polluting the air. Telomeres are specialized sections of DNA that allow chromosomes to be faithfully copied during cell division. However, with each round of cell division, telomeres shorten, resulting in a gradual loss of genomic stability. Shortened telomere length has been linked with cancer and heart disease, cognitive decline, aging, and premature death.

Led by Deliang Tang and Frederica Perera at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the research team analyzed telomere length in the umbilical cord blood of 255 newborns, about half of whom were born before the plant closure and half conceived and born after. In babies born pre-closure, researchers found higher levels of PAH-DNA cord adducts, a biomarker for exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons , a toxic component of air pollution from coal plants.

 Elevated levels of these adducts in cord blood were associated with shorter telomeres-the first time this relationship has been tested as well as with lower levels of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), a protein involved in neuronal grown. However, telomere length was not associated with developmental score in the subset of 210 children tested at age 2, although the researchers say the finding doesn't rule out telomere length-related neurodevelopmental problems at later ages.

Individual's telomere length at birth is known to influence their risk for disease later during adulthood, high levels of air pollution in Tongliang prompted the government to shut down the local coal-burning power plant to improve community health. This action, announced in advance, provided a unique opportunity to compare data on ambient PAH levels, biomarkers, and health outcomes in two successive cohorts of children, with and without prenatal exposure to emissions from the coal-fired power plant.

In previously published research on these cohorts, the authors reported newborns born after the plant closure had lower levels of PAH-DNA adducts, lower rates of various health outcomes, and increased levels of BDNF. The new study adds to the evidence that closing this coal-burning power plant was beneficial to the health and future well-being of newborns there, reducing exposure to air pollution is recommended for pregnant women and infants.
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MIND diet for cognitive decline

A diet created by researchers at Rush University Medical Center may help substantially slow cognitive decline in stroke survivors, according to preliminary research to the general population. The diet, known as the MIND diet, is short for Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. The diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. Both have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension, heart attack and stroke.

The foods that promote brain health, including vegetables, berries, fish and olive oil, are included in the MIND diet, the diet has slow cognitive decline in stroke survivors. MIND diet based on information from years of research about what foods and nutrients have good, and bad, effects on the functioning of the brain. The diet has been associated with reduced Alzheimer's risk in seniors who adhered to its recommendations. Even people who moderately adhered had reduced risk of Alzeimeir's disease D and cognitive decline.

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups" and five unhealthy groups-red meat, butter, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food. To benefit from the MIND diet, a person would need to eat at least three servings of whole grains, a green leafy vegetable and one other vegetable every day along with a glass of wine, snack most days on nuts, have beans every other day or so, eat poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week. The diet also specifies limiting intake of the designated unhealthy foods, limiting butter to less than half teaspoons a day and eating less than 5 servings a week of sweets and pastries, and less than one serving per week of whole fat cheese, and fried or fast food.

From 2004 to 2017, Cherian and colleagues studied 106 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project who had a history of stroke for cognitive decline, including decline in one's ability to think, reason and remember. They assessed people in the study every year until their deaths or the study's conclusion, for an average of 5.9 years, and monitored patients' eating habits using food journals.
The researchers grouped participants into those who were highly adherent to the MIND diet, moderately adherent and least adherent. They also looked at additional factors that are known to affect cognitive performance, including age, gender, education level, participation in cognitively stimulating activities, physical activity, smoking and genetics.

The study participants whose diets scored highest on the MIND diet score had substantially slower rate of cognitive decline than those who scored lowest. The estimated effect of the diet remained strong even after taking into account participants' level of education and participation in cognitive and physical activities. In contrast to the results of slower decline with higher MIND diet score, stroke survivors who scored high on the Mediterranean and DASH diets, did not have significant slowing in their cognitive abilities.

The Mediterranean and DASH diets have been shown to be protective against coronary artery disease and stroke, but it seems the nutrients emphasized in the MIND diet may be better suited to overall brain health and preserving cognition. According to Cherian, studies have found that folate, vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, carotenoids and flavonoids are associated with slower rates of cognitive decline, while substances such as saturated and hydrogenated fats have been associated with dementia.
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Causes of baby brain

Baby brain refers to increased forgetfulness, inattention, and mental "fogginess" reported by four out of five pregnant women. These changes in brain function during pregnancy have long been recognised in midwifery folklore, the new study has confirmed "baby brain"  as a real phenomenon, and also affects several cognitive areas.

Researchers combined data from different studies reporting the relationship between pregnancy and brain changes. They examined the cognitive function of pregnant women and non-pregnant women to explore how pregnancy may affect other cognitive areas beyond memory and to look specifically at how these changes might vary according to pregnancy trimesters.

The result showed that when pregnant women are compared to non-pregnant women, they perform much worse on tasks measuring memory and executive functioning which includes attention, inhibition, decision-making and planning, and the difference most pronounced during the third trimester. Women were tested with tasks such as the digit span test, which involves remembering digits in a line.

When the same women were tested at multiple points during their pregnancies, the decline appeared to start during the first trimester, then stabilise from the middle to the end of the pregnancy. Some pregnant women may notice they don't feel as smart as usual, these effects are realistically not likely to have any dramatic impact on everyday life.

Some women will simply find it seems to take more mental effort to do tasks that were previously routine. These changes might be noticeable to people very close to them such as family or friends, but this is highly dependent on each woman's personal experience of pregnancy. There were reductions in grey matter in the brains of pregnant women in regions known to be closely tied to processing social information, such as decoding infant facial expressions and establishing healthy bonding between mother and child.

Baby brain is an important adaptive phenomenon that might help women prepare for raising their children by allowing their brains to adapt to their new role as mothers. Importantly, this same study showed losses of grey matter in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for memory function, are restored two years after the birth of a child. This supports the idea cognitive declines are not permanent.
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Lack of sleep increases the levels of Alzheimer's protein

Chronic poor sleep has been linked to cognitive decline, and a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis explains why: As a wakeful brain churns away through the night, it produces more of the Alzheimer's protein amyloid beta than its waste-disposal system can handle. Levels of the protein rise, potentially setting off a sequence of changes to the brain that can end with dementia.

This study is the clearest demonstration in humans that sleep disruption leads to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease through an amyloid beta mechanism, the study showed that it was due to overproduction of amyloid beta during sleep deprivation. Sleeping poorly increases levels of brain proteins such as amyloid beta that are linked to Alzheimer's disease. But it wasn't clear why amyloid beta levels rise in a tired brain.

Neurologist studied eight people ages 30 to 60 with no sleep or cognitive problems. The participants were assigned randomly to one of three scenarios: having a normal night's sleep without any sleep aids ; staying up all night; or sleeping after treatment with sodium oxybate, a prescription medication for sleep disorders. Sodium oxybate increases slow-wave sleep-the deep, dreamless phase of sleep that people need to wake up feeling refreshed.

Each scenario occurred during 36 hours of monitoring, starting in the morning and continuing through the afternoon of the following day. The researchers took samples of the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord every two hours to monitor how amyloid beta levels change with time of day and tiredness. All eight participants returned four to six months later to undertake a second scenario, and four people completed all three. Studying the same people under different conditions provides the statistical power to detect changes in amyloid beta levels.

Amyloid beta levels in sleep-deprived people were 25 to 30 percent higher than in those who had slept the night through. After a sleepless night, amyloid beta levels were on par with the levels seen in people genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer's at a young age. brain changes. The brains of people with Alzheimer's disease are dotted with such plaques. Amyloid beta is a byproduct of normal brain activity.

The researchers found that when people stay awake, their brains continue to produce amyloid beta through the night. A sleeping brain produces much less. Asleep or awake, however, the brain clears the protein away at the same rate, so the increased production during sleep deprivation leads to higher levels of the damaging protein.
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Effects of estrogen treatment in multiple sclerosis

A study by UCLA researchers reveals the cellular basis for how the hormone estrogen protects against damage to the central nervous system in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The researchers found that estrogen treatment exerts positive effects on two types of cells during disease -immune cells in the brain and also cells called oligodendrocytes. Complementary actions on these two types provide protection from disease.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic autoimmune, neurodegenerative disease marked by visual impairment, weakness and sensory loss, as well as cognitive decline. These symptoms emerge when inflammatory immune cells destroy the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve processes called axons. Loss of that protective insulation disrupts electrical communication between nerve cells. The third trimester of pregnancy has been previously shown to reduce relapse rates by approximately 70 percent as compared to before pregnancy, and other studies have shown benefit over the long term due to multiple pregnancies.

An estrogen unique to pregnancy that is made by the fetus and placenta has been proposed by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl and colleagues to mediate this pregnancy protection in both the MS mouse model as well as in two successfully completed clinical trials of estriol treatment in MS patients. How that happens has remained a critical question. Voskuhl, who led the latest study, reported mouse studies showing that estrogen protected the brain from damage by activating a protein called estrogen receptor beta (ERb). Her new research identifies which cells within the brain are mediating this protective effect.

The researchers first genetically eliminated ERb in either immune cells of the brain or in oligodendrocytes, the cells that make the myelin sheath, as a way of making cells unresponsive to estrogen during the MS like disease in mice. They then treated mice without or with ERb in these cells to ask if disease protection was lost or not. Loss of protection during treatment meant that the treatment was acting on the cell that had the receptor removed. Results showed that the estrogen-like treatment was acting on both immune cells of the brain as well as on oligodendrocytes, together resulting in repair of myelin and less disability.

Drug developers often optimize therapies by targeting only one single cell type. By contrast, this study confirms that this estrogen-like compound can combat MS via complementary effects on two distinct cell types. Voskuhl and other UCLA researchers are in fact now developing a next-generation estrogen-like compound with robust biochemical effects on oligodendrocytes and immune cells in the brain.
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HIV treatment prevents cognitive decline

HIV-positive patients have the same risk of dementia as any other person if they take viral-suppressing medication and live a healthy lifestyle. One of the most debilitating effects of HIV is the neurocognitive decline, which can range from memory and language issues to dementia. Until now, research suggested that even those who take anti-retroviral therapy, the viral suppressing drug, had a higher risk of brain disorders than the general population.

Those who successfully suppress their viral load and live healthily have the same lifetime risk of dementia and other brain disorders as any other person. Older patients' brains may already have been ravaged by the disease, and medication couldn't reverse the damage, which would typically trigger symptoms within three or four years.

Researchers examined adults with HIV treated with cART with good viral suppression as well as those who did not have HIV for comparison. Both groups were about half women, with an average age of around 48 for the HIV-positive adults and 51 for the HIV-negative adults. Over the course of two years, the researchers assessed their brain changes using MRI scans.

They focused on the cortical thickness and subcortical volumes. They also assessed their cognitive performance using neuropsychological assessments. Those with HIV had poorer cognition and reduced brain thickness and volume than adults without HIV. However, by the end of the study, there were barely any differences between the two groups.
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Low blood flow in the brain may be a sign of dementia

High blood pressure and decreased blood flow in the brain may cause the build-up of dangerous amyloid plaque in the brain. Having problems with the blood vessels in the brain may affect thinking, cognition and memory.

Brain's blood vessels work like a plumbing system that distributes oxygen to every parts of brain cells and remove waste materials from the cells.

The brain relaxes its vessels to maintain constant blood flow as it adjusts for changes in blood pressure, but the brain vessels in Alzheimer's patients prevent blood flow and allow amyloid to get to the brain cells.

Alzheimer's patients have lower blood flow in their brains than the people without the disease. They experience cognitive decline and memory loss that leads to dementia.

Taking blood pressure lowering drugs can reduce the effects on memories of affected people because the drugs can cross the blood-brain barrier and prevents the toxins from getting to the brain.
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Extra-virgin olive oil prevents cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease

Extra-virgin olive oil protects memory and learning ability and reduces the formation of amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.

The oil reduces brain inflammation and activates autophagy. Autophagy is the process of cells breakdown and removing of intracellular toxins like amyloid plaques and tau tangles.

Brain cells from mice fed with diets enriched in extra-virgin olive oil had higher levels of autophagy and reduced levels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau. Phosphorylated tau causes neurofibrillary tangles that leads to nerve cell dysfunction in the brain that causes Alzheimer disease.

 Transgenic mouse model was used by researchers to investigate the links between extra-virgin olive oil and dementia, Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers divided the animals into two groups, one that received a diet enriched with extra-virgin olive oil and one that received the regular diet without the oil.

The olive oil was introduced into the diet when the mice were six months old, before symptoms of Alzheimer's disease begin to emerge in the animal model.

 There was no difference between the two groups of animals. However, at age 9 months and 12 months, mice on the extra virgin olive oil diet performed significantly better on tests designed to evaluate working memory, spatial memory, and learning abilities.

Studies of brain tissue from both groups of mice showed dramatic differences in nerve cell appearance and function.
The integrity of the connections between neurons, known as synapses, were preserved in animals on the extra-virgin olive oil diet.

Brain cells from animals in the olive oil group showed a dramatic increase in nerve cell autophagy activation, which was solely responsible for the reduction in levels of amyloid plaques and phosphorylated tau.

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Latest facts about dementia

Dementia is decline of the brain and its abilities, causing memory loss and slower thinking.

It’s currently incurable, but early diagnosis usually means less impact on sufferers’ lives and better support provided to them.

People who explained drops in their
blood pressure, causing dizziness when they stand, may have an increased risk of developing dementia.

Speaking another language could prevent dementia. Being bilingual delay
dementia by making the brain more resilient.

A component of turmeric - curcumin - was discovered to potentially prevent age-related cognitive decline.

Consuming more omega 3 a natural fatty acid found in rich levels on oily fish, eggs and seeds have anti-inflammatory effects on the brain.

Surviving a stroke places you at an increased risk of developing dementia.



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