Precision nutrition is an emerging concept that aims to develop nutrition recommendations tailored to different people's circumstances and biological characteristics. Responses to dietary change and the resulting health outcomes from consuming different diets may vary significantly between people based on interactions between their genetic backgrounds, physiology, microbiome, underlying health status, behaviors, social influences, and environmental exposures. On 11-12 January 2021, the National Institutes of Health convened a workshop entitled "Precision Nutrition: Research Gaps and Opportunities" to bring together experts to discuss the issues involved in better understanding and addressing precision nutrition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Research suggests optimizing sleep, exercise and work-life balance may improve resident physician burnout. Wearable biosensors may allow residents to detect and correct poor sleep and exercise habits before burnout develops. Our objectives were to evaluate the feasibility of a wearable biosensor to characterize exercise/sleep in neurology residents and examine its relationship to self-reported, validated survey measures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe allele is the most well-studied genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, a condition that is increasing in prevalence and remains without a cure. Precision nutrition targeting metabolic pathways altered by provides a tool for the potential prevention of disease. However, no long-term human studies have been conducted to determine effective nutritional protocols for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease in carriers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Alzheimer disease (AD) risk factors are present throughout the lifespan. This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of various online education strategies concerning AD risk reduction and brain health in younger populations.
Method: High school and college students were recruited via social media (Facebook and Instagram) to join AlzU.
Objective: To investigate sex differences in late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) risks by means of multimodality brain biomarkers (β-amyloid load via C-Pittsburgh compound B [PiB] PET, neurodegeneration via F-fluorodeoxyglucose [FDG] PET and structural MRI).
Methods: We examined 121 cognitively normal participants (85 women and 36 men) 40 to 65 years of age with clinical, laboratory, neuropsychological, lifestyle, MRI, FDG- and PiB-PET examinations. Several clinical (e.
Introduction: Low awareness of Alzheimer's disease (AD) clinical trials is a recruitment barrier. To assess whether online education may affect screening rates for AD prevention clinical trials, we conducted an initial prospective cohort study (n = 10,450) and subsequent randomized study (n = 351) using an online digital tool: AlzU.org.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch indicates that after advanced age, the major risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is female sex. Out of every three AD patients, two are females with postmenopausal women contributing to over 60% of all those affected. Sex- and gender-related differences in AD have been widely researched and several emerging lines of evidence point to different vulnerabilities that contribute to dementia risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Multidomain intervention for Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk reduction is an emerging therapeutic paradigm.
Methods: Patients were prescribed individually tailored interventions (education/pharmacologic/nonpharmacologic) and rated on compliance. Normal cognition/subjective cognitive decline/preclinical AD was classified as Prevention.
Introduction: Glucose hypometabolism and insulin resistance increase risk for and accelerate progression in Parkinson's disease and neurocognitive disorders. We conducted a proof of concept trial to determine whether ketogenesis, a metabolic adaptation induced by dietary carbohydrate restriction, can improve cognitive performance in Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment.
Methods: We enrolled patients with mild cognitive impairment associated with Parkinson's disease in an eight-week nutritional intervention with random assignment to either high-carbohydrate consumption typical of the Western dietary pattern ( = 7) or to a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic regimen ( = 7).
Background: Prodromal Neurodegenerative Disease (ND) due to tauopathies such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Synucleinopathies (SN) such as Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) present subtly. Although ND are considered cognitive disorders, in fact ND present with behavioral and even medical symptomatology years to decades prior to the onset of cognitive changes. Recognizing prodromal ND syndromes is a public health priority because ND is common, disabling and expensive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The use of social media may be a valuable tool for dissemination of patient education interventions. However, in Alzheimer's disease (AD), little data exists about the effectiveness, associated cost, or conditions for utilization.
Methods: Alzheimer's Universe (www.
The terms "prevention" and "risk reduction" are often used interchangeably in medicine. There is considerable debate, however, over the use of these terms in describing interventions that aim to and/or of Alzheimer's disease (AD) for patients seeking clinical care. Furthermore, it is important to distinguish between Alzheimer's prevention and Alzheimer's prevention when using these terms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo thirds of all persons with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) are women. Identification of sex-based molecular mechanisms underpinning the female-based prevalence of AD would advance development of therapeutic targets during the prodromal AD phase when prevention or delay in progression is most likely to be effective. This 3-year brain imaging study examines the impact of the menopausal transition on Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarker changes [brain β-amyloid load via 11C-PiB PET, and neurodegeneration via 18F-FDG PET and structural MRI] and cognitive performance in midlife.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) is a computer-based protocol not yet validated for clinical assessment.
Methods: We administered the NIHTB-CB and traditional neuropsychological tests to 247 Memory Disorders and Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic patients with subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease, and normal cognition. Principal component analysis, partial correlations, and univariate general linear model tests were performed to assess construct validity.
Objective: To investigate the associations between lifestyle and vascular risk factors and changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers (beta-amyloid load via C-PiB PET, glucose metabolism via F-FDG PET and neurodegeneration via structural MRI) and global cognition in middle-aged asymptomatic participants at risk for AD.
Design: Prospective, longitudinal.
Setting: The study was conducted at New York University Langone/Weill Cornell Medical Centres in New York City.
Like virtually all age-related chronic diseases, late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) develops over an extended preclinical period and is associated with modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors. We hypothesize that multimodal interventions that address many risk factors simultaneously and are individually tailored to patients may help reduce AD risk. We describe a novel clinical methodology used to evaluate and treat patients at two Alzheimer's Prevention Clinics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrecision medicine is an approach to medical treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle and allows for personalization that is based on factors that may affect the response to treatment. Several genetic and epigenetic risk factors have been shown to increase susceptibility to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD). As such, it may be beneficial to integrate genetic risk factors into the AD prevention approach, which in the past has primarily been focused on universal risk-reduction strategies for the general population rather than individualized interventions in a targeted fashion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative dementia that affects nearly 50 million people worldwide and is a major source of morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditure. While there have been many attempts to develop disease-modifying therapies for late-onset AD, none have so far shown efficacy in humans. However, the long latency between the initial neuronal changes and onset of symptoms, the ability to identify patients at risk based on family history and genetic markers, and the emergence of AD biomarkers for preclinical disease suggests that early risk-reducing interventions may be able to decrease the incidence of, delay or prevent AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Neurodevelopmental learning and attentional disorders (NLAD) such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affect at least 6% of the adult population or more. They are associated with atypical cognitive patterns in early and adult life. The cognitive patterns of affected individuals in late life have never been described.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine in a 3-year brain imaging study the effects of higher vs lower adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet (MeDi) on Alzheimer disease (AD) biomarker changes (brain β-amyloid load via C-Pittsburgh compound B [PiB] PET and neurodegeneration via F-fluorodeoxyglucose [FDG] PET and structural MRI) in midlife.
Methods: Seventy 30- to 60-year-old cognitively normal participants with clinical, neuropsychological, and dietary examinations and imaging biomarkers at least 2 years apart were examined. These included 34 participants with higher (MeDi+) and 36 with lower (MeDi-) MeDi adherence.
Objective: To investigate the effects of lifestyle and vascular-related risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) on in vivo MRI-based brain atrophy in asymptomatic young to middle-aged adults.
Design: Cross-sectional, observational.
Setting: Broader New York City area.
After advanced age, female sex is the major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The biological mechanisms underlying the increased AD risk in women remain largely undetermined. Preclinical studies identified the perimenopause to menopause transition, a neuroendocrine transition state unique to the female, as a sex-specific risk factor for AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This observational multimodality brain imaging study investigates emergence of endophenotypes of late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) risk during endocrine transition states in a cohort of clinically and cognitively normal women and age-matched men.
Methods: Forty-two 40- to 60-year-old cognitively normal women (15 asymptomatic perimenopausal by age [CNT], 13 perimenopausal [PERI], and 14 postmenopausal [MENO]) and 18 age- and education-matched men were examined. All patients had volumetric MRI, F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG)-PET (glucose metabolism), and Pittsburgh compound B-PET scans (β-amyloid [Aβ] deposition, a hallmark of AD pathology).
Mutations in microtubule-associated protein tau gene (MAPT) cause frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). Here, we describe a patient with FTDP-17 and a novel missense mutation in exon 13 of MAPT, p.E372G.
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