New approach to delaying Alzheimer’s

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - 12:30 in Health & Medicine

Previous studies have shown that keeping the mind active, exercising, and social interactions may help delay the onset of dementia in Alzheimer’s patients. Now, a new study led by Dennis Selkoe, co-director of the Center for Neurologic Diseases in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), provides specific, pre-clinical scientific evidence supporting the concept that prolonged and intensive stimulation by an enriched environment — especially regular exposure to new activities — may have beneficial effects in delaying one of the key negative factors in Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the Harvard-affiliated BWH used a wild-type mouse model when evaluating how the environment might affect Alzheimer’s. Unlike other pre-clinical models used in Alzheimer’s disease research, wild-type mice tend to more closely mimic the scenario of average humans developing the disease under normal environmental conditions, rather than being strongly genetically pre-disposed to the disease. Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Neurology at BWH...

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