alzheimer

Although the dream of stepping on the red planet still seems distant, NASA plans to reach Mars in 2035. Until then, there are still many details of the mission to be developed and many unknowns to be solved. One of them, perhaps the most important, is to know the effects of a trip of these characteristics on the health of astronauts.

Brief, intense exercise improves memory. This has been demonstrated by researchers at the University of California Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Their findings are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

The answer is 678 nuns and a scientist. The nuns were the sisters of the Notre Dame Convent in Mankato, Minnesota, a group of particularly long-lived and lucid women. The scientist, David Snowdon, assessed the sisters' cognitive performance and analyzed their postmortem brains. His findings were surprising. The typical pathological signs of the disease appeared in the brains of many of these women. However, these same women had shown a lucidity in the last years of their lives apparently incompatible with the symptoms that we associate with Alzheimer's.

The brain is really amazing. Hundreds of researchers work around this organ to try to unravel its functioning and thus cope with, for example, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. One of the latest research carried out at UCLA, the University of California, has discovered that, while we sleep, our brain behaves as if it were remembering something.

During pregnancy, some of the genetic material from the fetus passes into the mother's blood and can remain there for many years. A study published in the journal PLoS ONE indicates that women with DNA fragments from their male children in their brains are less likely to have Alzheimer's disease.

One of the ingredients in butter-flavored popcorn increases the risk of Alzheimer's, according to a study from the University of Minnesota (USA). It is diacetyl, a substance that, in addition to flavoring microwave popcorn, is present in margarines, as well as in some snacks and candies.

A Spanish team in collaboration with an American laboratory have just achieved a breakthrough for the world of neurology. According to the research, published in the journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' (PNAS), they have succeeded, for the first time, in transforming cells from the umbilical cord of a newborn baby into neurons, which opens up a world of possibilities for future treatments against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

Scientists from the University of Florida (USA) and Shanghai Fudan University (China) have shown that adults who practice Tai Chi three times a week have greater brain volume and better results in memory and reasoning tests. The results are published in the 'Journal of Alzheimer's Disease'.