Drinking even “moderate” amounts of alcohol increases dementia risk.

Light to moderate alcohol consumption has generally been considered to have some health benefits, including possibly reducing risk of cognitive decline. However, two studies reported today at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference^® 2012 (AAIC^®2012) in Vancouver suggest that moderate alcohol use in late-life, heavier use earlier in life, and “binge” drinking in late-life increase risk of cognitive decline.

“The many dangers of misuse of alcohol, and some of its possible benefits, have been widely reported, and there needs to be further clarification by the scientific community,” said William Thies, PhD, Alzheimer’s Association^® chief medical and scientific officer. “Certainly no one should start drinking in order to reduce Alzheimer’s risk, as these two new reports attest.”

“We need to know more about what factors actually raise and lower risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. To do that, we need longer term studies in larger and more diverse populations, and we need more research funding to make that happen. We have learned incredible amounts about heart disease and stroke risk from long-term research like the Framingham Study – we have solidly proven lifestyle risk factors that people can act on every day. Alzheimer’s now needs its version of that research,” Thies added. [continue reading…]

About

Maggie Steber was an only child. Madje Steber was a single parent. They were all the family they had and it wasn’t easy.

Madje divorced when Maggie was only six months old. Strong and independent, Madje raised her daughter in the small Texas town of Electra, near the Oklahoma border. She had a keen awareness of what others might be thinking of a young single mother at a time when that was often viewed as a scarlet letter. Their tiny house had strict rules and a formality that rubbed Maggie the wrong way, especially during her teenage years. Their relationship was strained with arguments and threats to move out. At the age of twenty-one, Maggie finally did.

“I wanted to leave, I had to leave,” Maggie says. “I went to New York to find my fortune, and there I found it.”

That fortune was as an internationally acclaimed photojournalist. She covered everything from fashion to war and completed stories in 62 different countries. She worked routinely for National Geographic, was the Director of Photography for the Miami Herald and taught at various universities and workshops.

As the years passed and Madje grew older, her memory began to fade. Maggie tried to help, but her busy career kept her away from Texas. She was only was able to visit a few times year. To this day, Maggie wonders if she did enough for her aging mother. Eventually it became apparent, Madje had dementia.

The disease proved relentless and Madje could not live alone anymore. Maggie was faced with an issue that more and more Americans must deal with as the massive baby-boomer population grows older. Maggie moved her mother to Miami to care for her. “This is my last chance to do it right,” Maggie says.

Over the next few years, Maggie turned her professional eye on her own life, documenting Madje’s life in an assisted living facility. The images speak to the pain of loss, the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship and the fragility of life. They reveal beauty in a liberation from the roles Maggie and Madje had learned to play as mother and daughter. They speak to both the harsh and humorous realities of life with a diminished parent and contain lessons for all of us as we face these issues in our own lives.

“This body of work is the most important one I have ever done,” says Maggie, “and will ever do. It’s Madje’s story, but really and truly, it’s my story.”

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Study Participants at Risk for Alzheimer’s Want to Know Their Potential Fate

If you had a family history of developing Alzheimer’s disease, would you take a genetic test that would give you more information about your chances?

“Definitely,” said Gloria VanAlstine, 60, and Joyce Smith, 79. The two women took a controversial genetic test of a gene called Apolipoprotein E. APOE is a susceptibility gene where certain variants have been found to significantly increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Both women have a family history of Alzheimer’s, which increases risk.

The genetic test was conducted as part of the Risk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer’s disease Study (REVEAL), a series of clinical trials taking place at U-M School of Public Health, with other sites including Harvard University, Howard University, and the University of Pennsylvania. [continue reading…]