Dementia

...ba href=/dementia/a/b, or financial constraints may influence smoking in older people," they wrote.

Another important factor - and one that may explain why women were more likely to quit than men - could be death of a spouse.

Women, they authors point out, typically live longer than men and are more likely to survive a male partner.

According to the authors, widowhood can unmask "functional deficits, triggering depression, or necessitating a move to assisted living or a relative's home," all factors that could drive the decision to quit.

In addition to lack of power to detect differences in mortality between quitters and smokers, the study was limited by its reliance on information collected at interviews with no biochemical confirmation or data on smoking behavior between interviews.

The authors concluded that although smoking cessation at "an advanced age is different from cessation in younger smokers" it is still a worthwhile goal that requires further study.

Primary source: Journal of the American Geriatric Society Source reference: Whitson H.E.

et al "Patterns and Predictors of Smoking Cessation in an Elderly Cohort" J Am Geriatr Soc 2006; 54:466-471 Disclaimer top Don't miss another MedPage Today Story!

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... MRI study findings open door to assessing, preventing dangero...

3/24/2006 Friday, March 24, 2006 UCLA News Home !

- - Add RSS Headlines MRI Study Findings Open Door to Assessing, Preventing Brain Iron Levels Associated With Neurodegenerative Diseases Date: March 24, 2006 Contact: Dan Page ( dpage@mednet.ucla.edu ) Phone: 310-794-2265 A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study at UCLA opens new doors to assessing and potentially preventing brain iron accumulation associated with risk of developing degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and ba href=/dementia/a/b With Lewy Bodies.

Posted as an early online publication of the peer-reviewed journal Neurobiology of Aging, this largest-ever study of brain iron demonstrates gender difference in brain iron levels for the first time.

Until now, researchers had considered the brain blood barrier as protection against accumulating too much iron from the body.

The finding suggests instead that age-related brain iron accumulation is a modifiable risk factor for degenerative brain diseases.

In addition, the study finds a nearly perfect correlation between iron levels in various brain regions of study participants measured using MRI and those reported by past post-mortem studies.

The finding demonstrates the ability of MRI analysis to accurately measure iron levels in brain tissues of living patients.

Previous studies have shown that high accumulation of iron in brain tissue causes oxidative damage an...

...ba href=/dementia/a/b, without necessarily increasing the length of time they have severe Alzheimer's disease, then this is a treatment option that should be available." Donepezil, known commercially as Aricept, is currently only licensed in the UK to treat people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's.

But campaigners believe it should be available to those with all forms of the disease.

Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "This and other recent research throws doubt on the conventional wisdom that cholinesterase inhibitors are only suitable for patients in the mild to moderate stages of the disease.

"It also suggests that these drugs may work in more ways than one and have other effects than simply inhibiting cholinesterases." About 20 per cent of Alzheimer's patients suffer from severe ba href=/dementia/a/b.

As their health deteriorates they become less able to communicate, less mobile, and increasingly reliant on nursing care.

Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disorder that gradually destroys a person's memory and ability to learn, reason, make judgments, communicate and carry out daily activities.

The disease shortens the life span and, although patients may live for as many as 15 years after diagnosis, the average period to death is about 8 years.

According to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, an estimated 800,000 people in the UK suffer from the disease.

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