News Briefs: Sense of Direction & AD; Fish Oil & Antidepressants; Frontotemporal Dementia
Faulty Sense of Direction May Indicate Very Early AD
Having difficulty recalling how to find your way around new surroundings may be a very early indication of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to research published April 2016 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Researchers compared older adults with cerebrospinal markers for AD but no symptoms of the disease (an indication of very early, preclinical AD) with a group of healthy individuals. All study participants were given a computer test of their ability to navigate a virtual maze. The test was designed to reveal both the participants’ ability to learn and follow a pre-set route, and to create and use a mental map of the maze. The study revealed that while all participants were able to learn the pre-set route, the participants with preclinical AD encountered significantly more problems in the mental map phase of the test than healthy participants. Although these problems disappeared with practice, and the preclinical participants eventually performed as well as the control group, the initial difficulty with creating a mental map was important and could represent a powerful new tool for detecting the very earliest AD-related changes in cognition, according to the study’s senior author.
Fish Oil Pills May Boost Effectiveness of Antidepressants
Researchers reviewed eight large clinical trials and other evidence to compare the treatment response of participants with major depression who took a combination of fish oil and antidepressant medication with those who took antidepressants and an inactive placebo. The researchers found that the fish-oil combination was more effective than the placebo combination, and the difference was “highly significant.” Said the lead author of the study, which appeared in the April 26, 2016 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry: “This is an exciting finding because here we have a safe, evidence-based approach that could be considered a mainstream treatment.” He cautioned people with depression to consult with their medical professional before changing or initiating a treatment.
Frontotemporal Dementia May Be Triggered By the Brain’s Immune System
Scientists have uncovered what they believe is a clue to what triggers frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the most common type of dementia in people under 60. Their work with laboratory animals and brain cells from human FTD patients suggests that the dementia may be initiated by an abnormal reaction of brain immune cells called microglia, which causes them to attack and consume the synaptic connections responsible for communication among brain cells. In healthy brains, the microglia are responsible for clearing waste products such as viruses, dead cells, and bacteria from the brain, and also pruning away unnecessary connections. According to research reported April 21, 2016 in the journal Cell, a genetic defect that becomes apparent with aging is thought to trigger an overabundance of “complement proteins” that mark unwanted connections for elimination, causing too many synapses to be destroyed by the microglia. The loss of connections results in cognitive decline and dementia. The researchers are now developing therapies to counteract this destructive process.
Maximum Exercise, Minimum Time: The Busy Person’s Ideal Workout
Just three 20-second “sprints” of high-intensity exercise with a few minutes of recovery in between provides as healthy a workout as a 45-minute session of moderate exercise, according to a study published online April 27, 2016 in PLoS One. Researchers compared two groups of bicycle exercisers. One group engaged in the highly efficient form of exercise—called sprint interval training—which involved all-out effort for 20 seconds, followed by a two-minute easy cycling recovery period, followed by another sprint, another two minutes of easy cycling, and a final sprint. The second group did 45 minutes of continuous cycling at a moderate pace. In both groups, the exercise session included a two-minute warm-up period and a three-minute cool-down. After 12 weeks of exercising three times per week, both groups of participants achieved the same improvements in heart/lung fitness and insulin sensitivity, an indication of fitness. The results apply not only to cycling, but to many other forms of exercise, including “climbing a few flights of stairs on your lunch hour,” the study author said.
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