Take a moment to enjoy the extra day this year!
Happy Leap Year – February 29th
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More on Sleep – The ‘Sleepy Girl’ Mocktail
Leave it to TikTok to come up with strategies on how to sleep better. I’m told the “sleepy girl mocktail” is the latest recommendation. It’s a concoction of tart cherry juice, magnesium powder and soda water, poured over ice. Cherries are a natural source of melatonin and also contains tryptophan, which combined with magnesium is purported to calm down your nervous system for better rest.
Here’s one recipe for the Sleepy Girl Mocktail (there are many variations.) You’ll need a few ingredients and a large glass. Give it a try and let us know if it works for you in the Comment section.
- Ice
- ½ cup pure tart cherry juice
- 1 tablespoon of magnesium powder
- Lemon lime-flavored soda or sparkling water
Fill a glass of your choosing with ice. Next, pour in the ½ cup of cherry juice. Add 1 tablespoon of magnesium powder to the liquid and stir well. Then top it off with your favorite lemon-lime flavored beverage. Some people also add two teaspoons of elderberry syrup.
When a Preschool Was Opened Inside a Dementia Care Home, All Heaven Broke Loose
“They say it takes a village to raise a child. Centered on that concept of communal flourishing, Northwest England’s first intergenerational care village, home to both older people and young children living and learning together, recently celebrated its official opening.
Stimulation, learning, fun—these are activities that are known to delay the progression of dementia, and what better way to add these critical elements of life to a daily regimen than to let a flock of preschoolers do it?”
Multi-Vitamin/Mineral Supplements Helpful in Preventing Cognitive Decline
‘A vitamin pill a day keeps the doctor away’
Supplements vs placebo are beneficial in preventing cognitive decline among older adults, according to study findings.” Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing data from the COSMOS trials, which “included participants aged 60 and older who were randomly assigned to receive a cocoa extract (500 mg flavanols/day) and/or a daily multivitamin-mineral (Centrum Silver) supplement for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.”
Multivitamin-Mineral Supplementation Prevents Cognitive Decline in Older Adults
Inexpensive Generic Sources for Centrum Silver
Early dementia diagnosis: blood proteins reveal at-risk people
The results of a large-scale screening study could be used to develop blood tests to diagnose diseases such as Alzheimer’s before symptoms take hold.
“An analysis of around 1,500 blood proteins has identified biomarkers that can be used to predict the risk of developing dementia up to 15 years before diagnosis.
The findings, reported today in Nature Aging1, are a step towards a tool that scientists have been in search of for decades: blood tests that can detect Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia at a very early, pre-symptomatic stage.
Researchers screened blood samples from more than 50,000 healthy adults in the UK Biobank, 1,417 of whom developed dementia in a 14-year period.
They found that high blood levels of four proteins — GFAP, NEFL, GDF15 and LTBP2 — were strongly associated with dementia.”
Credit: Vsevolod Zviryk/Science Photo Library
How to fight dementia, according to neurologists
“Get ready to focus on your brain, because according to the AAN, the era of preventive neurology has arrived. In fact, the academy is hoping that all Americans will be on the healthy brain train by 2050.
“It’s a brain health revolution,” Rost said. “We want to help the public understand that a lifetime of health begins with brain health.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/12/health/brain-checkup-wellness/index.html
FDA grants breakthrough designation to frontotemporal dementia treatment
Key takeaways:
- Latozinemab is an investigational human monoclonal antibody.
- The drug is currently being examined in a phase 3 clinical trial.
The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to latozinemab, an investigational therapeutic designed to block sortilin and elevate progranulin to treat frontotemporal dementia with a progranulin gene mutation.
According to a press release from Alector Inc., the breakthrough designation was approved based on data from the phase 2 INFRONT-2 clinical trial of latozinemab in patients with the condition.
New wearable treatment for Parkinson’s
The science behind the CUE1
Focused stimulation for Parkinson’s
This phenomenon was first described in the 19th century when Professor Jean-Martin Charcot noticed an improvement in his Parkinson’s patients after a bumpy carriage ride.”
https://charconeurotech.com/the-science/
What Is Mild Cognitive Impairment.
And How Is It Diagnosed?
“Millions of Americans are thought to have M.C.I., though exact numbers are hard to pin down because experts say the condition is underdiagnosed. There are likely several reasons for that: M.C.I. can be tricky to identify during a primary care visit, when physicians typically only have 15 minutes or so with a patient. People may also be scared to disclose their concerns to a doctor, or might not even realize that they have a problem.”
Update on Treatment for Obesity
Delaware is 43rd among states in the US with 38% of the population considered obese! For comparison, West Virginia is 50th with 41% obese, and Colorado ranked 1st with 25% obese.
https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/measures/Obesity/DE
GLP-1 medications semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are expensive treatment options for obesity, usually $1,000 or more per month (although insurers and PBM’s pay less – I’ve heard around $500 +/-) The State of Delaware is currently blaming the expense of these medications on the increase in cost of the State Employee benefit programs.
Not factored in are the savings from complications of diabetes and hypertension and the reduction in cardiovascular and orthopedic disorders (savings which may take years to show up.)
Presently, Delaware has been spending about $2.5 million a month on these drugs – total health plan spending over the first six months is about $15 million, which would equate to $30 million per year!
Delaware chose to cover the drugs last March and is now reassessing whether to make changes to its coverage policies. The State Employee Benefits Committee, which oversees Delaware’s health care plans for state workers and retirees, will be discussing this issue at upcoming meetings on Feb. 20, March 11 and 25 before making a recommendation to the State. Email the benefits committee at sebc@delaware.gov if you would like to comment.
Ethical and Health Concerns
According to a recent NPR story on Delaware Public Media, drugs like Ozempic can help weight loss, but not without ethical and health concerns.
“North Carolina shouldered the cost of the weight loss drug Wegovy for 2,800 state workers in 2021. Last year, that number shot up to 25,000 totaling $100 million.
Last Thursday, the state decided not to pay for it any longer. Celebrities and people like Elon Musk who can afford $1,000 a month for Ozempic and Wegovy can still get them. However, a nurse in North Carolina told The New York Times that finding Wegovy is like winning the lottery.
These Food and Drug Administration-approved, plant-based injectable drugs were initially developed to treat diabetes, but they also help with obesity. But demand for Ozempic and Wegovy’s weight-loss properties rose so high that diabetics had trouble finding them. There aren’t enough chemicals to keep up with the demand, creating a scarcity.”
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/02/05/ozempic-health-concerns-ethics
Recent evidence on benefits of weight loss on hypertension:
https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.11.032
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.123.22022
CNMRI 