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Study: Does earlier menopause onset mean faster cognitive decline?
News coverage about perimenopause and menopause often focuses on midlife symptoms such as hot flashes, poor sleep and brain fog. A new observational study in JAMA Network Open examines what may happen once those symptoms fade. Researchers followed 2,603 older women enrolled in the long-running Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project. They…
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Reporter uncovers how drug companies ‘make’ people into Alzheimer’s patients
In her latest investigative piece for The Lever, investigative journalist Jeanne Lenzer exposes the vast lobbying and marketing machine designed to turn healthy aging adults into “pre-Alzheimer’s” patients. Her reporting connected the dots between financial ties of high-level figures like Robert Redfield to patient recruitment through Facebook ads, to drugmakers and industry-funded groups pressuring Medicare…
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A simple blood test could detect Alzheimer’s earlier, but Medicare doesn’t cover it
Several new blood-based tests can help physicians detect Alzheimer’s disease years before symptoms become debilitating, but because they’re considered screening tests, they’re not covered by Medicare. This leaves millions of Americans undiagnosed or forced to wait until more serious symptoms appear. That means less time for early interventions, lifestyle and diet changes, or for anti-amyloid…
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Scientists create ‘brain map’ targeting Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases
A new study from researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies offers one of the most detailed looks yet at how the brain’s molecular landscape shifts over time. By examining tens of thousands of individual brain cells, the team created a large-scale atlas showing how aging alters the brain’s genetic control systems across different…
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What to know about the new Alzheimer’s blood test
In May, the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to a new blood test for Alzheimer’s disease that researchers say helps physicians diagnose the progressive neurological disorder earlier and at a lower cost. It is the first FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic test to identify patients with amyloid plaques associated with the disease in…
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Study: Alzheimer’s blood biomarker tests less reliable in some populations
Recent research revealed that blood biomarker tests for Alzheimer’s disease are less reliable for Black patients than for other ethnic and racial groups. Experts advise patients and physicians to proceed with caution when looking at results. A study by researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey found that these tests were less accurate and had…
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Uncovering misconduct among the Alzheimer’s ‘amyloid mafia’
The truth behind Alzheimer’s research, funding and oversight Moderator: Usha Lee McFarling, national science correspondent, STAT Charles Piller, Investigative Correspondent, Science magazine. Author, “Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s” By Emily Bazar, California Health Journalism Fellow As science faces attacks from the Trump administration, online conspiracy theorists and corporate interests, investigative…
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