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) One family's struggle with Alzheimers
In Washington State alone there are 100 thousand people with Alzheimers. Today I met with one woman who has a story about the struggles her family went through when dealing with the disease."The hardest part is that my kids don't get to know my mom," Thornhill said.
Candy's mother Valerie Poland passed away four months ago, it was the day before Mothers Day.
"We told her to go.. It's fine to go, we're all going to be fine, and she finally took her last breath on her terms."
It was her last breath after nine years of struggling with the disease It's a disease more than five million adults have in this country, a number Candy says is devastating."Unlike cancer where you can sometimes get treatment, this disease.. More>>
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) Merck arm to sell cheap diabetes drug
MSD's is focused on therapeutic research in Alzheimers disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, novel vaccines, obesity, oncology, pain and sleep disorders. These disease areas have been carefully chosen based on a set of criteria including unmet medical needs, scientific opportunity and commercial opportunity Rao is a doctor and practised internal medicine in the US for 10 years prior to joining Merck Inc. He took over as managing director of MSD (India) two years back.
MSD which was ranked 127th according to ORG two years back, has now moved up to the 51st slot now (March 2009). MSD's is focused on therapeutic research in Alzheimers disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, novel vaccines obesity, oncology, pain and sleep disorders. “We want to be in the top 5 slot by 2015, and will be profitable next year", Rao says. More>> - (
) Nitrates from food additives, fertilisers linked to Alzheimer's
United States statistics show that the risk of an 85-year-old American dying from Alzheimers Disease has increased nearly 200-fold since 1960, with similar devastating trends across the rest of the developed world showing no signs of plateauing.“It's ridiculous," said Dr Suzanne de la Monte of Rhode Island Hospital in the United States, who with a team of researchers investigated whether the rapid rise in certain diseases could be explained by environmental exposure.
“It beats all the charts. What could have possibly changed?"
Dr de la Monte, a regular visitor to China, said prior to about 1980 the brains of deceased Chinese aged 50-100 showed no signs of degeneration. Now the Chinese are also beginning to show the classic signs of damage associated with Alzheimers. More>>
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) $1.1 Million for Alzheimer's Disease
Kuakini Medical Center will receive $1.1 million to further studies examining the root causes of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Senator Daniel K. Inouye announced today.The funds were awarded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to Kuakini Medical Center to further the research of the Kuakini Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (Kuakini HAAS).
"Alzheimers and dementia rob so many of precious years at the end of their life," said Senator Inouye. "This funding is crucial to continuing research that benefits not only individuals in Hawaii suffering from dementia but also their family members, and to future generations."
Dr. Lon White, Principal Investigator for the study at Pacific Health Research Institute, said the study will further the understanding of the causes of dementia and help identify preventive strategies to reduce the human and public health burden from this affliction. More>>
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) Did you even know that your Umbilical Cord Blood could have been
It is also thought that in the future it could be used in a range of diseases including Parkinsons and Alzheimers. The potential of cord blood was first discovered in the 1970's, when it was seen that the blood was a rich source of stem cells, which have the capacity for self renewal. Since then the popularity of harvesting and storing these cells has increased, particularly in America, where it is commonplace.
Despite important research, it has only been in the past few years that cord blood has been collected in the UK. The NHS has just 5 hospitals in North London and surrounding areas which will collect the blood for the NHS Cord Blood Bank. For those living outside these areas, it is only possible to have the blood taken privately. An article in the Times has shown that many NHS hospitals do not support the taking of blood by a private firm following birth, forcing parents to give birth in a private hospital. More>>