Tag Archives: long-term effects
Alzheimer dementia and diabetes
Alzheimer’s disease [AD] is the most common cause of dementia in North America. Despite 30+ years of intense investigation, the field lacks consensus regarding the etiology and pathogenesis of sporadic AD, and therefore we still do not know the best strategies for treating and preventing this debilitating and costly disease. However, growing evidence supports the concept that AD is fundamentally a metabolic disease with substantial and progressive derangements in brain glucose utilization and responsiveness to insulin and insulin-like growth factor [IGF] stimulation. Moreover, AD is now recognized to be heterogeneous in nature, and not solely the end-product of aberrantly processed, misfolded, and aggregated oligomeric amyloid-beta peptides and hyperphosphorylated tau. Other factors, including impairments in energy metabolism, increased oxidative stress, inflammation, insulin and IGF resistance, and insulin/IGF deficiency in the brain should be incorporated into all equations used to develop diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to AD. Herein, the contributions of impaired insulin and IGF signaling to AD-associated neuronal loss, synaptic disconnection, tau hyperphosphorylation, amyloid-beta accumulation, and impaired energy metabolism are reviewed. In addition, we discuss current therapeutic strategies and suggest additional approaches based on the hypothesis that AD is principally a metabolic disease similar to diabetes mellitus. Ultimately, our ability to effectively detect, monitor, treat, and prevent AD will require more efficient, accurate and integrative diagnostic tools that utilize clinical, neuroimaging, biochemical, and molecular biomarker data. Finally, it is imperative that future therapeutic strategies for AD abandon the concept of uni-modal therapy in favor of multi-modal treatments that target distinct impairments at different levels within the brain insulin/IGF signaling cascades.
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Mobile phone and cordless phone use and brain tumor risk
We made a pooled analysis of two case-control studies on malignant brain tumours with patients diagnosed during 1997–2003 and 2007–2009. They were aged 20–80 years and 18–75 years, respectively, at the time of diagnosis. Only cases with histopathological verification of the tumour were included. Population-based controls, matched on age and gender, were used. Exposures were assessed by questionnaire. The whole reference group was used in the unconditional regression analysis adjusted for gender, age, year of diagnosis, and socio-economic index. In total, 1498 (89%) cases and 3530 (87%) controls participated. Mobile phone use increased the risk of glioma, OR = 1.3, 95% CI = 1.1–1.6 overall, increasing to OR = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.7–5.2 in the >25 year latency group. Use of cordless phones increased the risk to OR = 1.4, 95% CI = 1.1–1.7, with highest risk in the >15–20 years latency group yielding OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.1–2.5. The OR increased statistically significant both per 100 h of cumulative use, and per year of latency for mobile and cordless phone use. Highest ORs overall were found for ipsilateral mobile or cordless phone use, OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.4–2.2 and OR = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.3–2.1, respectively. The highest risk was found for glioma in the temporal lobe. First use of mobile or cordless phone before the age of 20 gave higher OR for glioma than in later age groups.
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Autoimmune disease, inflammation and the brain
Went to a fabulous lecture by Dr. Souhel Najjar on autoimmune encephalitis this morning. As a reminder, bad relationships (including with one’s self-image etc.) can also cause/contribute to inflammatory burden. Below is a well-informed and written piece on Anti-NMDA-receptor encephalitis … Continue reading
Association of Childhood Adversities and Early-Onset Mental Disorders With Adult-Onset Chronic Physical Conditions
Important paper on childhood adversities an adult-age chronic medical conditions, published just before our study on endogenous opioid dysregulation after early childhood adversity in psychiatrically and physically “healthy” adults. Archives of General Psychiatry August 2011, Vol 68, No. 8 > < Previous ArticleNext … Continue reading