Alzheimer's Club

Lower Risk by Exercise. Heart health and brain health are associated with each other, according to a multi-Institute collaboration of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published online today in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. It may be possible to maintain brain health as we age by making good lifestyle choices, such as exercise, learning new things and staying socially connected.

From the public health perspective, the researchers believe that by controlling cardiovascular (CV) risk factors we can help maintain “brain health”. These factors include reducing blood pressure, reducing weight, reducing cholesterol, treating (or preferably avoiding) diabetes, and not smoking.

Committee chair Hugh Hendrie, MB, ChB, DSc, said “Based on our review of CV risk factors, the link between hypertension and cognitive decline was the most robust across studies.” He is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine.

They found a close correlation between physical activity and brain health. According to an Alzheimer’s Association press release “Three separate, large-scale, observational studies examined by the committee found that elders who exercise are less likely to experience cognitive decline. However, they caution that more research is needed before specific recommendations can be made about which types of exercise and how much exercise is beneficial.” The authors point out that exercise is an inexpensive preventative treatment.

"We found surprising consistency across the studies," committee member Marilyn Albert, PhD said. “In particular, we found that well known risk factors for heart disease also are risk factors for cognitive decline, and that physical activity may reduce risk for cognitive decline and dementia in older adults." Marilyn is Director of the Division of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Immediate Past Chair of the Alzheimer's Association Medical & Scientific Advisory Council.

Other protective factors included a higher education level, higher socio-economic status, emotional support, better initial performance on cognitive tests, better lung capacity, more physical exercise, moderate alcohol use, and use of vitamin supplements.

Although genetic influences are poorly understood at present, other factors such as social disengagement and a depressed mood, have been found to be associated with declining cognitive and emotional health late in life. Increased mental activity throughout life, such as learning new things, may also benefit brain health."

Source: Best Syndication (22 February 2006) [FullText]

Also see Neurobiology of Lipids for more info on lipid-based interrelation of brain and heart diseases

The West Virginia Senate unanimously passed a bill to establish an Alzheimer's registry at West Virginia University on Wednesday.

The purpose of the bill is to collect and evaluate date on the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders in the state. Information from the registry could be used to support research, but individuals' names would be confidential.

The registry would cost the state about $125,000 to operate annually. A similar measure passed the Senate last year, but died in the House.

About 50,000 West Virginians are expected to have Alzheimer's Disease by 2025. That's a 25 percent increase from 2000, according to an April report by the State Department of Health and Human Resources.

Source: Denise Alex. Alzheimer's Registry. WTAP News (23 February 2006) [FullText]

WASHINGTON, DC -- Children who switched their diets for only a few days to organic foods dramatically and immediately lowered the amount of toxic pesticides in their bodies, researchers report.

Lead author Chensheng Lu of Emory University found that when kids eat organic foods, pesticides in their body plummet to undetectable levels -- even when following the diet for only five days.

"An organic diet does provide protective measures for pesticide exposure in kids," said Lu, who presented his research at a panel at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in St. Louis. His study appeared in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Lu designed a novel intervention study by substituting organic foods into the diets of 23 elementary school children in the Seattle area. All the kids, who were aged 3 to 11, had metabolites -- or evidence of pesticides -- in their urine at the study's start. But as soon as they began eating organic foods, the concentration of metabolites dropped to essentially zero. Once they returned to their conventional diet, the pesticides levels bounced back up.

The parents were given shopping lists to buy organic vegetables, fruits and juices, as well as wheat and corn products. Meat and dairy products were left out, Lu said, because these foods don't usually have pesticide residues. The parents fed their children organic foods for five consecutive days during a 15-day study period. The researchers evaluated the kids four times over the course of a year by analyzing their urine and saliva.

Lu said he is confident that the pesticide reductions can be attributed to the kids' diet, because the particular class of pesticides studied, called organophosphorus pesticides, or OPs, are not found in households. The kids ingested these pesticides from eating conventional foods, and not from playing in grass treated with chemicals, for example.

Although this study to some degree proves the obvious -- pesticide-free foods create pesticide-free children -- co-author Richard Fenske at the University of Washington says he was impressed by the magnitude of difference in the results.

So should parents be worried?

Lu and Fenske claim the health risks to children are still uncertain, although Lu points out that there's no getting around the fact a pesticide is a neurotoxin. Since the chemicals disrupt enzymes in the brain which govern communication, exposure to pesticides could damage a child's brain. These chemicals are developed, after all, to kill bugs by paralyzing or over-exciting their neurological systems.

"In terms of the impact of these low levels of chemicals on a regular basis in a developing organism -- and that's what a child's neurological system is -- this is extremely important that we try to understand this," Fenske said.

The Environmental Protection Agency warns children may be sensitive to pesticides because their excretory systems are not developed enough to excrete pesticides, and that in relation to their body weight, kids eat and drink more than adults.

Currently, researchers are studying whether conditions like attention deficit disorder, lowered IQs, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease can be linked to early exposure to pesticides. Children are most vulnerable to pesticides from formation of the fetus up to 2 years of age.

Charles Benbrook, the chief scientist of The Organic Center, a Rhode Island-based nonprofit encouraging the widespread adoption of organic foods and processes, says there's enough consensus to act now to rid agriculture of pesticides. He mentioned the work of Robin Whyatt at Columbia University with pregnant women in New York. Whyatt found that birth weight and birth length is lower in children whose mothers were exposed to pesticides.

Benbrook said he was amazed at how fast and how significantly the urinary metabolites fell in Lu's study participants.

"This is very encouraging. What it says is this point is bigger than the debate about organics. If farmers were to change how they managed pests for six or eight crops, we could essentially eliminate most of pesticide exposure and take this risk factor out of equation," he said.

Lu emphasized children also get exposed in other outlets, for example around the home or in public sports fields, where pesticides are often oversprayed.

"You have to accept the fact a farmer needs to use pesticides to have healthy crops for harvest, but is it really necessary for parents to use pesticides around the home?" he asked.

Overall, parents should be aware of how their kids could be in contact with pesticides, Lu said. Since organics tend to cost more than conventional foods, parents don't need to go 100 percent organic to get protective benefits, he said. He recommends checking out www.ewg.org, which provides a list of foods and their pesticide risk.

"The message of this paper is not to scare parents from eating conventional diets, but it's for them to think about pesticide exposure as a whole, and how to minimize the exposure. Diet is not necessarily the only answer," Lu said.

Source: Christine Dell'Amore. UPI Consumer Health (22 February 2006) [FullText]

The governor tells a biotech conference he wants to entice research institutions with lower taxes to create more prosperity.

WEST PALM BEACH - Cutting taxes, rewarding businesses with incentives and luring the biotechnology industry to Florida are key to diversifying the state's economy, Gov. Jeb Bush told researchers, venture capitalists and biotech executives Tuesday.
Bush said he wants to entice research institutions with lower taxes, a move he said would create more prosperity than any government program.

''The bioscience industry is key to solidifying Florida's future as a global hub for innovation and groundbreaking research and development,'' Bush said. ``We must continue to foster an environment that attracts the field's best and brightest.''
Promoting the biotechnology industry has been a central theme in the governor's seven years in office. He persuaded the Legislature in 2003 to spend $310 million on an incentive package aimed at luring The Scripps Research Institute to Florida.
Bush told the conference hosted by BioFlorida, an independent bioscience organization, that it was the right time to diversify the economy.

Last week, Palm Beach County commissioners approved a new site for the Scripps center in the northern part of the county after lawsuits by environmentalists threatened to derail the project at its original location on the edge of the Everglades.

Bush has said he envisions 8 million square feet of industrial space at the site to allow for related development. In his view, a biotech hub would lure top scientists, high-paying jobs and cutting-edge research aimed at curing cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS.

The state and county have committed nearly $600 million to the Scripps project. The San Diego, Calif.-area institute is one of the country's largest, private, nonprofit research organizations. Also last week, IBM announced a collaboration with Scripps aimed at melding science with technology to fight potential pandemic viruses.

Source: Brian Skoloff. AP/Miami Herald (22 February 06) [FullText]

"It's hard to read the newspaper, take the subway, grab a cup of coffee or even mill around the watercooler without seeing or hearing about the latest national craze called Sudoku.

Publication of the first such logic-based number-placement puzzle occurred in an American magazine in 1979. However, Sudoku - short for Japanese words meaning "only single numbers allowed" - didn't really catch on until 1986 in Japan and till 2005 back in the U.S., as well as the rest of the globe. The first Sudoku world championship is scheduled to take place in Lucca, Italy, in March.

(Sudoku should not be confused with another similar-sounding Japanese word, "sodoku," or spirillum fever, which one can contract from a rat's bite.)

Why Do We Like A Tease? Many enthusiasts say the numbers game is highly addictive. But is trying to solve Sudoku puzzles and other brainteasers a way to keep one's mind young and active? Or is it simply a way to pass time?

There are several reasons why we do puzzles. The main reason, however, experts say is because puzzles give us a sense of being in control.

Most challenges in life can seem like they don't have solutions (and some don't). This can be frustrating. Brain teasers, on the other hand, are solvable - which boosts self-esteem and gives the solver a sense of accomplishment.

In addition, advocates of mental games say that by regularly exercising the mind, you keep it in good condition.

"Challenging one's brain in novel ways - such as with brainteasers - helps to increase stimulation and can be potentially beneficial to one's long-term mental functioning," said John M. Grohol, Psy.D., co-chair of the Mental Health Channel for Revolution Health Group's Medical Advisory Board.

Senior citizens and young people may benefit the most from cerebral amusements, according to experts.

Neurons: "You're Fired!" A recent study from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland found that neurons in seniors' dormant brain cells are activated by the mental stimulation involved with such games and exercises. This, in turn, could help the brain function better in old age and fight off disease.

In students, such problem-solving puzzles not only expand their knowledge and vocabularies, but they also sculpt extra grooves in their young, impressionable, cauliflower-shaped gray-and-white-mattered organs.

Many youth have taken their "brainiac" passions a step further and transformed their hobbies into full-fledged sporting activities.

Leyan Lo, a 20-year-old student at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, recently set a record time at a competition held by his school's Rubik's Cube Club. Lo solved the puzzle in 11 seconds. This topped a previous record of 11.75 seconds by Frenchman Jean Pons, who clocked the time at last year's Dutch Open.

Despite the record-setting time, Lo was unable to win the overall championship, succumbing to 15-year-old Shotaro "Macky" Makisumi, considered by many to be the fastest Rubik's Cube solver in the world. He is a 15-year-old Japanese national who's currently attending the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Calif.

What was Macky's secret to winning so many matches in a row on his way to clinching the title? "I don't know. Faster first two layers," he told reporters, referring to his strategy of completing the first two layers of the puzzle before moving on to the last.

It's All In Your Head Besides "going for the gold," psychologists say there are other benefits to challenging yourself to master mind games.

"Children and seniors can both benefit from brainteasers because research has shown that when looking at the brain through an MRI or a CAT scan, brainteasers actually cause the neurons to fire faster, therefore increasing brain activity," said Dale Robinson, R.N., a Brain Gym instructor at the Tallahassee Senior Center in Florida.

"That being said, brainteasers can be very beneficial to anyone, as can other creative puzzles, movement, dancing and reading, to name a few," he added.

Grohol concurred. "It is generally understood that intellectual or mental stimulation may improve mental functioning," he said.

But not all agree with this assessment. Margaret Gatz, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, has written an article published by the San Francisco-based Public Library of Science that offered a different take. Too much concentration is placed on cognitive fitness and its benefits, Gatz said, particularly in those with Alzheimer's disease.

"If mental exercise is widely believed to prevent [Alzheimer's], then individuals who do become demented may be blamed for their disease on the grounds of not having exercised their brains enough," she said.

Robinson agreed with the University of Edinburgh study and that brainteasers and similar word and mathematics riddles do have the ability to awaken brain cells that were dormant before play began. "Research is showing more and more that using movement and doing brainteasers increases the overall health of your brain," he said.

Meanwhile, scientists keep running experiments and churning out their study findings. But for a majority of the game players, puzzles like Sudoku are less about brain development and much more about the challenge - and, yes, the fun."

Source: Brainteasers, time-wasters? myDNA News (22 February 2006) [FullText]

"When Neha and Vivek Saxena decided to bank the cord blood cells of their baby more than a year ago as an 'insurance,' little did they realise that they would have to use it so soon. Although their families did not have a history of any health problems, they decided to bank the stem cells of their baby.

"We did it for our child. But I took some time to be convinced mainly because it involved big money. I consulted my family doctor, my sister and father who are scientists, to know whether it was worth it. It is a kind of bio-insurance for our child," Neha explained the thoughts that went behind the decision.

Unfortunately, her son developed intolerance to milk from the fourth month onwards. "This has made him extremely vulnerable to diseases. My son is also anaemic, and is on antibiotics. I just hope and pray that some scientist would do some research on this area. I pray that the investment that we made will solve these issues. I feel this is the best insurance we have taken for our son."

Neha had post-delivery complications due to the negligence in the hospital, and a blood patch surgery on her back a week after the delivery has made the situation even worse. Now she has severe back pain, headache and many other health problems. "The only hope I have now for spinal injury is the stem cells of my son that we have banked. We are told a lot of research has gone into spinal injuries. What we had done for our child might come to use for me, I think. Strange!"

Stem cell bank S.Abhaya Kumar, the founder and managing director of Shasun Drugs and Chemicals, is the man behind India's first private stem cell bank, LifeCell. Marketing guru Dr Jagdish Sheth one of the directors of Shasun helped set up this project as Dr.Sheth was also on the board of Cryo-cell International Inc. in Florida, USA. Set up in 1992, Cryo-Cell International is the world's first and largest cord blood stem cell bank.

"Dr Sheth was very interested in bringing the technology of preserving the stem cells from the (umbilical) cord blood for the family's future use. Since it had not come to India, we thought of this as a platform to do a lot of research," Abhaya Kumar said.

But he knew how difficult it would be to introduce something of this sort in India. "As I was aware of the mindset of the Indian doctors, I knew selling this concept to Indian public will be the most challenging job, more challenging than setting up a lab of international standards."

He went ahead with the idea and a lab was set up with an investment of Rs.12 crore (Rs 120 million) as per USFDA standards. He also set aside Rs 3 crore (Rs 30 million) for marketing the concept.

As his daughter-in-law was expecting her first child by November, they decided to race against time to set up the lab in just six months' time. On═14 November 2004, LifeCell, India's first cord blood cell banking was inaugurated.═ "We wanted my grandson to be our first customer! It was a massive effort, and we were happy that we could store my grandson's cord blood." The first enrolment happened on the 28th of November and the first collection on the 5th of December.

What are Stem cells? Stem cells are master cells that act as the building blocks of our blood and immune systems. They can develop into white cells that fight infection, red cells that carry oxygen throughout the body and platelets that promote healing. This ability allows them to act as a repair system for the body, replenishing other cells throughout our lives. Stem cells are found in our bone marrow where they continue to regenerate cells.

What is cord blood? It is the baby's blood that remains in the umbilical cord and placenta at the time of birth. Cord blood has a high concentration of stem cells. Stem cells in cord blood have a number of advantages over those from bone marrow. They are easier to obtain than stem cells from bone marrow. The collection of cord blood is a quick and painless procedure with no risk to the mother or the child. They also have the advantage of being available for transplant if ever needed as the they are stored in the labs.

More importantly, the cord blood stem cells are a perfect match for the child and his/her blood relations from whom it is collected, thus eliminating the difficult process of finding a matching donor and minimising the risks of rejection.

The Procedure Once a pregnant woman enrolls herself with LifeCell paying an initial fee of Rs 27,000, she is given a kit. Post delivery, within ten minutes of cutting the umbilical cord of the baby, the blood is collected and stored in the bag provided in the kit. The kit is sealed and sent by courier to the stem cell storing facility in Chennai. Cord blood can be retained at room temperature for almost 36 hours.

Once it reaches the lab in Chennai, the cord blood is tested for all types of infectious diseases. Only if it is found to be safe, stem cells are processed from it. About 14 ml of stem cells are taken and stored at a temperature of -190 degrees. Every parent who has banked with LifeCell has to pay Rs 2900 every year for the safe keeping of the stem cells from cord blood. Though the stem cells belong to the child, the mother is the guardian of the stem cell till the child turns 21.

How successful are stem cells So far, 6000 cases are reported globally where stem cell transplants have been successful. One of the first successes was the stem cell transplant in a woman paralysed by brain haemorrhage. Another successful case was of a South Korean woman paralysed for 20 years, walking again after scientists repaired her damaged spine using stem cells taken from cord blood.

In India, Adyar Cancer Institute and Apollo Speciality Hospital in Chennai, Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, Apollo Speciality Hospitals, Global Hospitals, and NIIMS in Hyderabad, Christian Medical College in Vellore, Narayana Hrudayala in Bangalore, R&R Army Hospital and AIIMS in New Delhi, Inlaks Hospital and AFMC in Pune and Sanjay Gandhi PGIMS in Lucknow have stem cell therapy centres.

Ailments that stem cells can cure Stem cells are already in use to cure ailments like acute leukaemia, chronic leukaemias, myelodysplatsic syndromes, stem cell disorders, myeloproliferative disorders, lymphoproliferative disorders, phagocyte disorders, inherited disorders like osteoporosis, B-Thalassemia, inherited metabolic disorders, inherited erythrocyte abnormalities like Beta Thalassemia mand Sickle cell disease, and other malignancies like multiple myeloma, plasma cell leukaemia, renal cell carcinoma and retinoblastoma.

Trials are on for cardiac diseases, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and stroke. Scientists are hopeful of stem cell applications in Alzheimer's disease, Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in future.

Life Cell members Life Cell has more than 1300 members. Some of the celebrity members are Raveena Tandon and Priya Dutt. So far, LifeCell has processed and stored around 1100 samples. Though it was expected that families with a history of cancer and other chronic ailments would enroll as members. Most of the 1300 members are using stem cell banking as an insurance for their child.

Dr. Prakash, who is a consultant psychiatrist with the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute in Pondicherry, decided to bank his first born's stem cells although no one in the family had any major illnesses. He and his wife had to think a lot before taking a decision, due to the high cost. As a doctor, I know the kind of unpredictability in everybody's life. I felt this will act like a buffer if something goes wrong not only for the child but others in the family too."

"We thought this would help not only the baby but the family as well. We felt this is an opportunity we are giving our child, which can help him in future," says Nilakandan and his wife Ameera.

The road ahead Starting with one centre in Chennai, LifeCell plans to have centres in Gurgaon, Surat, Pune, Chnadigarh, Jallandar, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Nagpur and Vizag in India, and Dubai, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Riyadh and Bangkok abroad, by the end of the year.

Abhaya Kumar does not want to restrict himself to cord blood banking alone. His plan is to have therapy centres also, and as a first step, LifeCell is collaborating with the Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre in Chennai to start a stem cell transplant centre. Initially, the hospital plans to have transplants in the cases related to haematology and oncology. "We plan to set up more transplant centres across the country in association with other reputed hospitals," said Abhaya Kumar.

LifeCell also intends to have application research and clinical trials with focus on spinal cord injuries and then move on to cardiac and other diseases. LifeCell has tied up with Saneron to bring in therapy for neurological disorders, to India.

"We are at par with the developed countries. I would say we are one step ahead in therapy, as in the US, there are restrictions they cannot use stem cells for all therapies. Approval takes a long time but in India, rules are more encouraging for research. So we would like to conduct of lot of clinical trials and establish procedures for therapy. Once we are successful in therapy, we can propagate all over the world," Abhaya Kumar said.

LifeCell plans to start a public cord blood banking facility. Every mother who supplies cord blood to the public banking has to give a declaration that the cells can be used for research or for third party use. This will be operational in another two months. If you want to take stem cells from a public bank, it will cost you Rs10 lakhs.

LifeCell gets 300 clients every month, and has a target to have 2000 clients every month. They plan to have 10,000 members by 2006-07 and 18,000 by 2007-08 and 30,000 by 2008-09.

Source: Shobba Warrier. Stem cells: Bio-insurance for your child. Rediff.com (22 February 2006) [FullText]