A new study finds that the cost to care for Americans with dementia is at least as high--or probably higher than--the cost to care for heart disease or cancer. And the cost and the number of people with dementia will more than double within 30 years, The New York Times reports. The study, led by an economist at the RAND Corporation and financed ...

Being physically fit in middle age may lower the risk of dementia in old age, according to a study from The Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers examined 19,458 healthy adults younger than age 65 who took a treadmill fitness test as part of a broader health examination between 1971 and 2009. Researchers then followed the subjects' Medicare ...

Elderly people with hearing loss may be at risk of developing cognitive deficits sooner than those whose hearing is intact, according to a new JAMA Internal Medicine study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine. After examining 1,984 older adults who participated in the Health ABC Study, Dr. Frank Lin, a hearing specialist and epidemiologist, ...

Consumer Reports recently released a report on the effectiveness of Alzheimer's drugs. To read about the findings, click here. The report also suggested trying non-drug strategies first to alleviate some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's. These strategies include avoiding unfamiliar settings, eliminating situations that might cause embarrassment ...

Brain cells may age similar to the way skin cells do, with one aging cell affecting many around it, a study from the British Journal Aging Cell suggests. Researchers found that aging mouse neurons produced several substances, including free radicals and other molecules that can promote inflammation and alter DNA, which can damage nearby cells, ...

Older adults who exercised and used computers reduced the risk of memory loss, whereas doing either activity by itself did not, according to a study from the May issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Participants who performed moderate physical activity and used a computer were 64 percent less likely to experience mild cognitive impairment compared ...

Any kind of daily physical activity can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease even in people older than 80, according to a forthcoming study from Neurology. Even chores like washing dishes and cooking or tasks like moving a wheelchair with your arms count as physical activity--and can help lower risk for Alzheimer's disease, according to this ...

Nicotine may help improve memory loss in seniors, according to a study published in Neurology. Researchers found that seniors who had mild cognitive impairment could enhance their memories with nicotine patches. The patches also improved attention and mental processing. To read more about this study and its implications, click here for an ...

Imagining that your health is poor may increase your risk for dementia, according to a recent study from the journal Neurology. People in the study who rated their health as poor or fair were significantly more likely to develop dementia later in life than those who reported being in good health, the study found. At the beginning of the study, ...

One-fifth of Medicare nursing home patients with advanced Alzheimer's or other dementias were sent to hospitals or other nursing homes for questionable reasons in their final months, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers from Harvard University and Dartmouth Medical School studied almost 475,000 ...