Alzheimer's in the News - March 2025
The Alzheimer’s Hub of Hope has four sections: Heroes, Highlights, Headlines and Helpers/Caregivers. This post is aligned to the headlines section.
Here are the most interesting Alzheimer’s articles for March. I’ve summarized a few of them but you are encouraged to click on the underlined headings and read the items for yourself.
The second and third articles I summarized point to gut health as impacting AD and suggest that both prebiotics and probiotics can have a positive impact.
1. Alzheimer's May Not Actually Be a Brain Disease, Says Expert
This short, easy-to-read, article discusses fraud, questionable science and the lack of progress for beta-amyloid being the cause of Alzheimer’s and discusses an alternative theory.
The Krembil Brain Institute, part of the University Health Network in Toronto, is devising a new theory of Alzheimer's disease.
Based on 30 years of research, we no longer think of Alzheimer's as primarily a disease of the brain. Rather, we believe that Alzheimer's is principally a disorder of the immune system within the brain.
When a person trips and falls, the immune system helps to mend the damaged tissues. When someone experiences a viral or bacterial infection, the immune system helps in the fight against these microbial invaders.
The exact same processes are present in the brain. When there is head trauma, the brain's immune system kicks into gear to help repair. When bacteria are present in the brain, the immune system is there to fight back.
We believe that beta-amyloid is not an abnormally produced protein, but rather is a normally occurring molecule that is part of the brain's immune system. It is supposed to be there.
When brain trauma occurs or when bacteria are present in the brain, beta-amyloid is a key contributor to the brain's comprehensive immune response. And this is where the problem begins.
Because of striking similarities between the fat molecules that make up both the membranes of bacteria and the membranes of brain cells, beta-amyloid cannot tell the difference between invading bacteria and host brain cells, and mistakenly attacks the very brain cells it is supposed to be protecting.
This leads to a chronic, progressive loss of brain cell function, which ultimately culminates in dementia – all because our body's immune system cannot differentiate between bacteria and brain cells.
In our model of Alzheimer's, beta-amyloid helps to protect and bolster our immune system, but unfortunately, it also plays a central role in the autoimmune process that, we believe, may lead to the development of Alzheimer's.
2. Over-60s who took these supplements had better memory than their twins
A new study found that taking a daily prebiotic supplement can improve scores in memory tests used to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. And to really control for genetic differences, the researchers enlisted several pairs of twins over age 60 to test it out.
This study featured 36 pairs of twins over 60 in a double-blinded trial. The trial incorporated two inexpensive, over-the-counter plant fiber prebiotics.
Researchers at King’s College London used inulin, a dietary fiber in the fructan class, and fructooligosaccharide, a plant carbohydrate commonly used as a natural, low-calorie sweetener.
To test the effects of these supplements, the team split the twin pairs; one twin was given a daily prebiotic in a protein powder, while the other was given a daily placebo.
In general, after twelve weeks, the twin who took inulin or FOS scored higher on a cognitive test.
Evidence of the link between gut and brain health is mounting, though the precise way these nervous systems coexist is not fully understood.
Previous rodent studies have found a link between high-fiber supplements and gut health, with experts maintaining that these supplements feed the microbiome and allow good bacteria to flourish.
3. Fermented milk drink could fight Alzheimer's
Researchers have found that the fermented milk drink kefir may be able to boost cognitive function to improve memory in people with Alzheimer's.
The fermented milk drink - which contains a lot of probiotics - may be able to help boost cognitive function to improve memory in people with the progressive condition that affects memory, thinking and behavior.
As it is "teeming with live microorganisms, [it] is thought to influence the gut microbiota, potentially reducing inflammation and the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain".
It comes as a team of researchers looked at seven existing studies, with one focusing on humans, and how the drink affects the brain and if it could be as beneficial to the brain as it is to the gut.
They said of the findings, published in the journal Brain Behaviour and Immunity Integrative: "Kefir contains bioactive compounds, such as B vitamins, choline, and folic acid, which are essential for neuronal health and cognitive function.
4. Hormone Therapy Use in Older Women Linked to Tau Accumulation, Leads to Greater Risk of Alzheimer Disease
Women over the age of 70 who had undergone menopausal hormone therapy (HT) over a decade earlier are more likely to experience rapid tau accumulation in the brain than younger women, leading to an increased likelihood of Alzheimer disease (AD), according to a study published in Science Advances.
The study, led by Gillian T. Coughlan, PhD, at Mass General Brigham’s Department of Neurology, compared and analyzed the brain scans of 146 women—73 had taken HT an average of 14 years earlier and 73 had not. At the start of the study, both groups were aged 51 to 89, and HT users were age-matched to their HT non-user counterparts. To record the trends in beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau protein accumulation, PET scans were conducted over a median of 4.5 years and 3.5 years, respectively, and imaging included the frontal, lateral, temporal, and retrosplenial cortices.
The study’s researchers found that while Aβ accumulation differences in both demographics of women were negligible, tau accumulation differences were significant. They further found that the effects of HT on tau accumulation were age-dependent, with younger women benefitting from HT, while older women experienced accelerated tau accumulation.
Younger HT users closest to menopause onset exhibited lower tau accumulation in the entorhinal cortex, the region responsible for memory processing, compared to non-users. In contrast, older HT users (>70 years) demonstrated an annual increase in tau accumulation.
The findings suggested that early HT initiation may have a protective effect against tau accumulation, whereas HT initiation in later years increased the risk for neurodegeneration.
“Our findings add to the evidence that delaying initiation of HT, especially in older women, could lead to worse Alzheimer’s outcomes.”
5. Neurostimulation Shows Promise as Potential Alzheimer’s Treatment
Repeated sessions of electrical stimulation to brain networks associated with memory improved verbal learning in some Alzheimer’s disease patients for up to eight weeks in a preliminary trial led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers.
The findings, published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, indicate that while future trials are needed, neurostimulation shows early promise as a treatment for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Lewy body dementia.
The small trial tested the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which sends an electrical current through electrodes affixed to the scalp to alter the functioning of targeted brain regions. The study was rigorously performed with results of two doses of tDCS compared with a control group.
Unlike Alzheimer’s medications that target plaques and protein tangles in the brain that disrupt mental abilities, tDCS doesn’t alter brain pathology. Instead, its purpose is restoring damaged neural pathways to improve cognitive functioning.
Twenty-five patients with Alzheimer’s disease received either neurostimulation for 20 minutes on 10 days during the two-week trial, or a sham treatment with no electrical current. They took tests to measure memory and other high-level information processing skills before their first tDCS treatment and immediately after their last one.
One-third of the neurostimulated patients showed clinically meaningful improvement in verbal learning — their ability to recall a series of words soon after hearing them — versus none in the control group. For those who improved after receiving a lower current, effects persisted for eight weeks, pointing to the technique’s promise as a potential treatment.
Additionally, 25% of patients who received neurostimulation at a lower current and 33% who received a higher current showed clinically meaningful improvements in their abilities to rapidly produce words, such as naming objects and actions. This compared with none in the control group showing meaningful improvement.
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Alzheimer’s is a relatively NEW disease.
The first known case was in Germany in 1906.
For a few decades after then, it was *only* known throughout the “developed “ world.
A logical conclusion might be that *something* environmental had changed.
That change… I suggest… is that the introduction of Aluminum cookware, starting first in the developed countries… like Germany… and subsequently spreading throughout the world… is responsible for today’s Alzheimer’s “epidemic”.