Seems like a little lecithin would be in order ..

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Associated With Higher Alzheimer's,
Dementia Risk
ScienceDaily (July 24, 2009) — Though discoveries about Alzheimer's
disease risk factors are often in the news, adults do not know about
the relationship between Alzheimer's disease risk and heart health,
nor that physical activity can be protective against dementia,
according to new research reported at the Alzheimer's Association 2009
International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

An additional study reported at ICAD 2009 shows higher Alzheimer's
risk in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Your brain plays a critical role in almost everything you do:
thinking, feeling, remembering, working, and playing – even sleeping,"
said Maria Carrillo, PhD, Director of Medical & Scientific Relations
at the Alzheimer's Association. "The good news is that we now know
there's a lot you can do to help keep your brain healthier as you age.
These steps might also reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's
disease or another dementia."

"There's a strong and credible association between heart health and
brain health. If people learn about and do some simple lifestyle
modifications, such as being more physically active and eating a brain
healthy diet, it could have an enormous impact on our nation's public
health and the cost of healthcare," Carrillo added.

Adults Show a Poor Understanding of Alzheimer's Link to Heart Health
Risk Factors

Colleen E. Jackson, M.S., a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at
the University of Connecticut, and colleagues conducted an anonymous
online survey of 690 adults to measure "dementia literacy," that is,
their knowledge and beliefs that may assist in the recognition,
management, or prevention of Alzheimer's.

Mean age of the population was 50 years, the range was 30-85 years;
76% of respondents were female. Ninety-four percent (94%) of
participants were from the United States, with the remaining 6% from
other English-speaking countries. The sample was relatively wealthy,
with 18% of respondents making more than $200,000 per year at the peak
of their careers, and well-educated, with 87% of respondents having
completed at least 1-3 years of college.

The researchers found that 64% of study participants incorrectly
indicated no association between Alzheimer's and obesity or high blood
pressure. Sixty-six percent (66%) did not know that high stress is a
risk factor for dementia, and 34% did not know that physical exercise
is a protective factor.

On the positive side, nearly all study participants (94%) correctly
indicated that Alzheimer's is not normal aging, and is not completely
based on genetics.

"Our data suggest that American adults have limited knowledge and a
poor understanding of factors that have been demonstrated to increase
risk for Alzheimer's, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and other
heart health risk factors," Jackson said. "They also didn't know much
about protective factors against Alzheimer's, such as physical
exercise, relative to the strength of the available research
evidence."

"We need more education programs and opportunities, across all
demographic groups, focusing on behaviors that modify your risk for
developing Alzheimer's disease," Jackson added.

PTSD Linked to Nearly Double Dementia Risk in Veterans

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is common among veterans
returning from combat and there is some evidence that it may be
associated with reduced cognitive function. However, no study has yet
investigated if PTSD increases the risk of developing dementia.

To address this emerging issue, Kristine Yaffe, MD, Professor of
Psychiatry, Neurology and Epidemiology and Associate Chair of Research
for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San
Francisco, and Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry and Director of the
Memory Disorders Clinic at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and
colleagues sought to determine if PTSD is associated with risk of
developing dementia among older veterans in the U.S. receiving
treatment in veterans' medical centers.

They studied 181,093 veterans aged 55 years and older without dementia
(53,155 veterans diagnosed with PTSD and 127,938 veterans without
PTSD) using data from the Department of Veterans Affairs National
Patient Care Database. Mean baseline age of the veterans was 68.8
years and 97% were male. They followed the veterans from 2001 through
2007, including tracking whether they were diagnosed with Alzheimer's/
dementia.

The researchers found that veterans with PTSD in the study developed
new cases of dementia at a rate of 10.6% over the seven years of
follow-up; those without PTSD had a rate of 6.6%. (Note: This is
updated data from the researcher, which is why it differs from the
attached abstract.) Even after adjusting for demographics, and medical
and psychiatric comorbidities, PTSD patients in this study were still
nearly twice as likely to develop incident dementia compared to
veterans without PTSD (HR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.7-1.9). Results were similar
when they excluded those with a history of traumatic brain injury,
substance abuse or depression.

"It is critical to follow patients with PTSD, and evaluate them early
for dementia," Yaffe said. "Further research is needed to fully
understand what links these two important disorders. With that
knowledge we may be able to find ways to reduce the increased risk of
dementia associated with PTSD."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal references:

1.Jackson et al. Dementia literacy: Public understanding of known risk
factors. Alzheimer s and Dementia, 2009; 5 (4): P410 DOI: 10.1016/
j.jalz.2009.04.1002
2.Yaffe et al. Post-traumatic stress disorder and risk of dementia
among U.S. veterans. Alzheimer s and Dementia, 2009; 5 (4): P104 DOI:
10.1016/j.jalz.2009.05.326

----------------------

" Higher levels of acetylcholine"

They'd be protected from .. meningitis .. too ..

Promising New Treatment For Alzheimer's Suggested Based On Hebrew
University Research
Article Date: 22 Jul 2009 - 0:00 PDT

Research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has
resulted in a promising approach to help treat Alzheimer's disease in
a significant proportion of the population that suffers from a
particularly rapid development of this disease.

In the research at the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences of the
Hebrew University, scientists solved a mystery as to why people who
carried a mutated gene known as BChE-K were prone to more rapid
development of Alzheimer's than those who had a normal version of the
gene. This mutation appears in about 20 percent of the American and
Israeli populations.

In theory, the carriers of the mutated gene should actually be more
protected from the devastating effects of the disease, since the
mutated protein (the enzyme that is the product of the gene) breaks
down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at a slower rate than in
those
who have the normal gene. The result is that the carriers maintain
higher levels of this neurotransmitter, so they should in principle
be
protected from Alzheimer's disease, in which acetylcholine levels
decrease.

Indeed, these carriers tend to develop the disease later than others,
but when that happens, it progresses more rapidly and does not
respond
to medication. Therefore, the bottom line is that carriers of the
mutated gene have a greater risk than others for disease progression.
The reason for this anomalous situation has been a puzzle for a long
time, but the studies by the Hebrew University scientists solved it
by
finding the explanation for this increased risk, thereby offering as
well a possible new therapeutic solution.

At the Wolfson Center for Structural Biology at the Hebrew
University,
the researchers found that the mutation in the BChE-K gene damages
the
very end, or tail, of the resultant mutant enzyme protein. This tail
is the part of BChE which is important for protection from the
Alzheimer's disease plaques. It does this by interacting with the
Alzheimer's disease â-amyloid protein and preventing it from
precipitating and forming those brain plaques which are the
neuropathological hallmark of this disease.

To compare the normal protein to the K mutant, the researchers used
synthetic tails of the normal and the K proteins, as well as
engineered human BChE produced in the milk of transgenic goats at a
U.S. company, Pharmathene. The goat- produced protein is prepared at
Pharmathene for the U.S. military as protection from nerve gas
poisoning (a result of earlier research at the Hebrew University). It
was much more stable and efficient than the mutant protein, which
suggests that the BChE-K carriers' susceptibility to Alzheimer's
could
be substantially improved by treating them with the engineered normal
protein that is produced in the milk of the transgenic goats.

The current study was the last part in the Ph.D. work of Dr. Erez
Podoly, now a post- doctoral fellow with the Nobel laureate Roger
Kornberg at Stanford University. Podoly was the joint student of Prof
Oded Livnah and Prof. Hermona Soreq and won a National Eshkol
fellowship in Biotechnology to perform this work as well as a Kaye
Innovation Award at the Hebrew University. Others who contributed to
this study included Dr, Debbie Shalev and Dr. Ester Bennett from the
Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Harvey Wilgus from Pharmathene,
and Dr Einor Ben-Assayag and Shani Shenhar- Tsarfati, a Ph.D.
student,
both from the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel aviv, where the Israeli
carriers of BChE-K were identified.

The project is patented and is available for licensing by the Yissum
Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

An article by the researchers on this work was recently selected as a
Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Paper of the Week and featured
on the cover of the publication.

Source:
Rebecca Zeffert
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

-------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.psychoactives
Alejandro Escalante Medina    View profile   Let me see if I got it
right: lecithin is a source of choline, isn't it? I plan to take
choline along with Piracetam to increase it's effects. Alex -- Matias
Software Group                                   (525) 256-0214
Soporte comercial para Linux y Apache en Mexico
i...@msg.com.mx
--------------------------

"Exercise depleted circulatory choline concentrations. Short term
oral
supplementation with soy-derived PS (S-PS) has been reported to
attenuate circulating cortisol concentrations"

Phospholipids and sports performance.
J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007 Jul 25;4:5.
Jäger R, Purpura M, Kingsley M.
Increnovo LLC, 2138 E Lafayette Pl, Milwaukee, WI 53202, USA.
ralf.jae...@increnovo.com.

ABSTRACT:
Phospholipids are essential components of all biological membranes.
Phosphatidylcholine (PC) and Phosphatidylserine (PS) are
Phosphatidyl-phospholipids that are required for normal cellular
structure and function.
The participation in physical activity often challenges a variety of
physiological systems; consequently, the ability to maintain normal
cellular function during activity can determine sporting performance.
The participation in prolonged intense exercise has been shown to
reduce
circulatory choline concentrations in some individuals.
As choline is a pre-cursor to the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine,
this
finding has encouraged researchers to investigate the hypothesis that
supplementation with PC (or choline salts) could enhance sporting
performance.
Although the available data that evaluates the effects of PC
supplementation on performance are equivocal, acute oral
supplementation with PC (~0.2 g PC per kg body mass) has been
demonstrated to improve performance in a variety of sporting
activities where exercise has depleted circulatory choline
concentrations.
Short term oral supplementation with soy-derived PS (S-PS) has
been reported to attenuate circulating cortisol concentrations,
improve perceived well-being, and reduce perceived muscle soreness
after exercise.
More recently, short term oral supplementation (750 mg per day of
S-PS for 10 days) has been demonstrated to improve exercise capacity
during high intensity cycling and tended to increase performance
during intermittent running.
Although more research is warranted to determine minimum dietary
Phospholipid requirements for optimal sporting performance, these
findings suggest that some participants might benefit from dietary
interventions that increase the intakes of PC and PS.

PMID: 17908342

---------------

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian!
http://tinyurl.com/2r2nkh

Man Is A Herbivore!
http://tinyurl.com/a3cc3

DEAD PEOPLE WALKING
http://tinyurl.com/zk9fk