Dear Readers, I was recently on a conference call with women physicians discussing the latest in Women’s Health and was asked about vitamin D and its effect on cognition. Indeed vitamin D has received a lot of media attention lately; attention focused on its potential effect on cardiovascular and bone health, in addition to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects. Thus, it was not a surprise to me when the discussion turned to “cognitive health” and [...]
Dear Readers, Whenever I give a presentation about the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and discuss the known risk factors for the disease, I am asked this question . . . ( 90% of the time by the women audience members) . . . “Dr. A, is stress a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease?” Well, based on research findings from a variety of studies, the short answer is “Yes.” Let’s consider the latest finding [...]
Many of our patients and their physicians are aware that physical inactivity and obesity are at epidemic proportions in the United States, which has resulted in an increased prevalence of chronic diseases. Relatively few, however, realize that both these conditions may be associated with poor memory function.
Let’s consider the issue of obesity. Over the years, obesity has truly become a woman’s issue. Sixty five million of the 72 million American adults who are considered obese or overweight are women. In addition African American and Hispanic women are much more likely to be obese than white women.
Welcome to Checking in from the “Field” with Dr. A., a new monthly blog post on Alzheimer’s Insights. For the last 14 years, in addition to evaluating patients at the Rush Memory Clinic, I have been the “MD in the Field” for many of our community based participatory research studies conducted at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Rush Institute for Aging in Chicago, Illinois.
Over the years performing study related home visits or community presentations, [...]
Dear Readers, Have you heard the saying “Things come in three’s?” Well, that was the case this month when over a three week period, I was asked the following question three times, at three separate Asian community health events “Which type of dementia is more common in Asians — Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia?” A similar question was posed in a recently published study that sought to examine the trends in prevalence (existing cases) of [...]
