How to reduce your Alzheimer’s risk

We all know walking is an excellent form of exercise: lowering the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
In a recent study, Cambridge scientists have found a blood-pumping walk throughout the week may significantly reduce the onset of Alzheimer’s.

“The important message is that there are aspects of healthy life which reduce risk…This doesn’t say we can prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s altogether. But there is a proportion which is preventable. Even just having a vigorous walk a few times a week, and ideally make it social event,” says Professor Carol Brayne, from Cambridge University’s Institute of Public Health.

Dr Doug Brown, of the Alzheimer’s Society in the UK notes, “This valuable study adds to a growing body of evidence strongly suggesting that simple lifestyle changes can help lower our risk of developing dementia. Regular exercise is a good place to start, as well as avoiding smoking and eating a Mediterranean diet.”

Despite the incredible benefits of walking, in 2012, The Heart Foundation Australia reported that over a third of females in Australia aged 15 and over have low levels of exercise – accounting for 3.1 million women who aren’t getting their recommended 2 1Ž2 hours of moderate exercise each week.

The best way to get moving? Increase your everyday incidental activity:
· Jump off the bus earlier and walk 15 minutes to your destination.
· Take the stairs, rather than the escalator or lift.
· Walk to and from local coffee dates with friends (they’ll forgive you for turning up in sneakers!). They may even join you!

The disease behind the Ice Bucket Challenge

Over the last few weeks, your social media feeds have probably been flooded with videos like the one above, of friends, colleagues and celebs drenching themselves in ice water and challenging others to do so, too. So what's it all about?
No, it's no new health fad, they're participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge, a viral campaign to raise awareness and funds for ALS. Here in Australia, ALS (or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is known as motor neurone disease (MND). Also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease in America, (after the baseball legend was diagnosed in 1939), approximately 1900 people in Australia are living with the disease and every day, two people are diagnosed with MND.Motor neurone disease is the name given to a group of diseases in which the nerve cells (neurones) controlling the muscles that enable us to move, speak, breathe and swallow undergo degeneration and die. The diseases in this group can be categorised by four main types: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), progressive bulbar palsy (PBP), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) and primary lateral sclerosis (PLS).
With no nerves to activate them, muscles gradually weaken and waste - this then affects a person’s ability to walk, speak, swallow and breathe. As these motor neurones degenerate, the brain is unable to control muscle movements, most often leading to paralysis and eventually death. According to MND Australia, the average life expectancy is 27 months from diagnosis, but survival rates can vary significantly. Two people die every day in Australia from MND.
Initial symptoms are mild and generally reveal themselves with a loss of muscle function in the hands or feet. The diagnosis is confirmed with blood tests and neurological exams. Most people with MND retain all senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) their intellect and memory but approximately one in five people with motor neurone disease may experience cognitive changes also.
The disease can happen to anyone and is only inherited in about 5 - 10 per cent of cases. While it's about 20 per cent more common in men than in women, the disease appears to be mostly random. Unfortunately, this is an illness that usually progresses quickly.
However, about 20 per cent of patients live five years or more, while 10 per cent will survive more than 10 years and five percent will live 20 years, according to the American ALS Association. But one thing to keep in mind is that the progression of MND seems to differ from person to person.
There is currently no cure for MND, but there is one PBS-listed drug called riluzole that has been shown to modestly slow the progression of it. According to MND Australia, riluzole does not cure MND but for people with the most common forms of MND it probably prolongs median survival by two to three months (median is the mid-point – half those taking riluzole have survival prolonged by more than two to three months).

Poor-quality sleep may affect heart health

Research indicates that poor-quality sleep—and waking too early in particular—is associated with increased inflammation among women with heart disease. There was no similar association found for men, suggesting that women with heart disease and sleep problems may be at particular risk for inflammation that can be damaging to the heart.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco investigated the relationship between sleep quality and inflammation linked to coronary heart disease. They also sought information about how an association between sleep and inflammation might differ between men and women. Their investigation included 980 men and women at the outset, and 626 completed the 5-year study. All of those included were suffering from coronary heart disease. The average age of men in the study was 66. Women were slightly younger, with an average age of 64. Researchers measured sleep quality by asking participants to rate their sleep over the previous month. They also asked for reports of some of the most common sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking frequently throughout the night, and waking too early in the morning. Researchers assessed inflammation levels using 3 biomarkers: Interkeukin-6, C-reactive protein, and Fibrinogen.
After 5 years, researchers repeated tests for inflammation and once again sought reports on sleep quality and sleep problems. When they analyzed data for both men and women together, researchers found no links between inflammation and sleep quality. However, when they analyzed data taking gender into account, researchers found a relationship between inflammation and sleep existed for women, but not for men:

• Women who reported poor sleep quality experienced greater increases in levels of inflammation over the 5-year period than men.
• Women who reported their sleep quality as “very poor” or “fairly poor.” experienced increases to their inflammation markers that were 2.5 times greater than men who reported the same levels of poor sleep.
• The association between inflammation and sleep remained intact for women even after taking into account other factors that might influence inflammation, including age, cardiac function, body mass index, medication use, and lifestyle factors.
• The link between inflammation and sleep for women with coronary heart disease was particularly strong among those women who had a tendency to wake too early in the morning.
• Women were more likely than men to report waking too early. They were slightly more likely than men to report waking frequently during the night and having difficulty falling asleep.
• Because the majority of women in the study were post-menopausal, researchers hypothesized that low estrogen levels might explain the link between poor sleep and inflammation. This question was not examined in the study itself.