With more than 100 drug trial failures in treating dementia, there’s a growing consensus that we may need to take the same sort of approach to dementia as we do to heart disease, with an emphasis on reducing known modifiable behavioral risks. Many findings are driving this shift, including the Lancet Commission finding that 40% of cases could be avoided or delayed by better managing known risks, and the multi-modal FINGER trial which showed a 25% reduction by focusing on brain exercise, physical exercise, diet, and cardiovascular risk (and is now being replicated in similar trials worldwide). This past month, many press reports accelerated the trend, including results from a promising single-arm trial using a multi-modal protocol that personalizes to each user, and reports on an NIH made a grant to our company to develop a model community-based Brain Health Program with the YMCA of San Francisco you can read about here and here. We are excited and humbled to be involved in these efforts. |
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Best regards, Jeff Zimman Co-founder Posit Science |
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| | The Latest on Alcohol and the Brain The news on the effects of alcohol and the brain is still developing. While some studies show that drinking (red) wine or other alcoholic drinks in moderation may have positive effects, a new study has a different result. It shows that drinking just four drinks a week results in more iron in the brain, which has been associated with poorer cognitive function. Learn more. |
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A New Take on “Good” Sleep A lot of us think that a good night’s sleep means you wake up rarely, or even better, not at all. A new study suggests that might not be the case. The study (conducted in mice, which have similar sleep mechanisms to humans) showed that neurologically, it’s likely we wake up very briefly about 100 times per night, without noticing. And that might be a good thing. Learn more. |
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The Stress of Racism Is Reflected in the Brain Recent research has shed light on how experiencing racism affects the physical health of Black Americans. Now, a study from Emory University shows how those experiences can alter brain health. The study looked at the brain health of Black women and found that the integrity of the brain’s white matter was associated with the degree to which the woman had experienced racial discrimination. Learn more. |
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Using AI to Learn About Mental Health Researchers at Georgia State University have done something new: they have created a program to review thousands of brain images to determine similarities in the brains of people who have mental health disorders. This research could help doctors find brain patterns that indicate a person is likely to develop schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, and other mental health disorders before they show external symptoms. That may help medical professionals define better preventative treatments. Learn more. |
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Can Dogs “See” With Their Noses? We all know that dogs have an incredible sense of smell—much better than that of humans. Now, new research shows an extensive “information highway” between the visual and olfactory system in dogs, indicating a degree of integration between sight and smell that is unheard of in humans. Does that mean dogs can “see” what they smell? Find out. |
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A Different Take on Dyslexia Our modern system often defines dyslexia as a “problem.” But some scientists disagree, arguing instead that it is a “cognitive specialization” that evolved for a reason: otherwise, they posit, dyslexia would no longer affect 5-20% of people across the world. Learn more. |
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If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity (2022) By Justin Gregg Most of the books we review in this newsletter are about the astounding capabilities of the human brain. This book is no different—except that the author isn’t sure those capabilities are, in fact, assets. Funny, insightful, and illuminating, If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal uses wonderful research on animal brains to point out the ways in which we might not be the “superior” species after all. Learn more. |
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