Are You Losing Your Mind?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Ever feel like you are losing your mind, but you don't have dementia? Researchers may hold the answer in protein fragments.

High plasma levels of beta-amyloids, which are protein fragments most commonly associated with Alzheimers's, have shown faster cognitive decline in those who don't have Alzheimer's disease.

According to the article, the amyloid hypothesis implies that Alzheimer's disease only develops when the body is no longer to metabolize proteins called glycoproteins. It is when beta-amyloid 40 and beta-amyloid 42 accumulate, that Alzheimer's develops.

Stephanie A. Cosentino, Ph.D., of Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, along with her colleagues, studied a total of 880 people who were dementia-free at the start of the study. Additionally, these individuals had at least two beta-amyloid measurements four and a half years apart.

Results found that between the two measurements, 481 participants remained cognitively healthy and 329 were cognitively impaired but had no signs of dementia. Seventy people developed Alzheimer's.

"Examination of specific cognitive domains in the current study revealed that global cognitive change in healthy elderly individuals was driven primarily by memory, rather than language or visuospatial abilities," study authors were quoted as saying. "This seemingly selective association with memory has several interpretations. First, it may suggest that healthy elderly people with a high-risk beta amyloid profile are in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease but have not yet demonstrated sufficient change in non-memory domains to meet criteria for dementia," authors concluded.

SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, December.

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