Up at 5AM: The 5AM Solutions Blog

Two new studies published in JAMA this week confirm that amyloid plaques on the brain predict future Alzheimer's Disease (AD). What's more, there is evidence that the plaques appear decades before patients experience the cognitive declines associated with AD. Researchers have long suspected that amyloid plaques precede the disease, but according to an article in the New York Times, this new research is "[t]he largest analysis to date of amyloid plaques in people’s brains [and it] confirms that the presence of the substance can help predict who will develop Alzheimer’s and determine who has the disease."

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The National Institute on Aging estimates that about 5 million Americans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer's Disease (AD). In general, as people get older, they become more susceptible to this irreversible, degenerative brain disease. In fact, the prevalence of AD doubles every five years after age 65, and while AD is not "normal" aging, as the population ages the numbers of cases of AD will increase commensurately. To put that into perspective, by 2050, 20% of the population will be 65 years old and older.

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It is a gloomy, rainy day here in the Washington, DC area. It's the kind of weather that, when it goes on too long, can cause one's mood to swing to the decidedly negative side of the pendulum. As it turns out, two factors in the opening sentences of this post - cynicism and low levels of vitamin D - may play a role in developing Alzheimer's and dementia according to two recent studies. 

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