A new study shows that patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) do not progress to dementia if they drink enough coffee! Gotta love it. I'm going to start drinking a whole pot, by golly. The researchers in this study think that it's the caffeine, and not the anti-oxidants, that has the anti-dementia effect, but according to mouse studies, it has to be coffee. Those patients with a little MCI who java it up enough to have a plasma caffeine level of 1200ng/mL did not go into dementia. 100%. The caffeine appears to inhibit an enzyme used in the manufacture of beta amyloid! They're also tracking cytokines in the plasma and finding that there's a particular profile assorted with conversion to Alzheimer's disease (low IL-6, IL-10, and G-CSF). In the future we might consider testing for those cytokines to detect impending dementia in healthy patients.
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here:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761557?src=mpnews&spon=12

Twenty eight percent (28%) of US households are now just one person living alone. This is the most ever. These singles are the biggest spenders, contributing 1.9 trillion to "the economy" each year. (According to The Week 2/10/12 which is in turn quoting Fortune magazine)

And another factoid from the same source: the number of US prisoners age 65 and over has increased 63% between 2007 and 2010. I guess we're keeping them put away so long that now they need more medical care, and it's becoming an issue. The total number of prisoners has been flat for that same period.

A new study has been published in the November issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry (Br J Psych. 2011;199:386-390). This is the first longitudinal study showing brain effects of marijuana; it reduces the volume of the thalamus in folks age 16-25 who are well but have a family history of schizophrenia. The reduction is greater on the right side.
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http://www.telegram.com/article/20110710/NEWS/107109970/1237

Makes the case that as we age, we should get our ducks in a row for the possibility that we ourselves might not make the best decisions about money in our old age.

Neuroplasticity wanes with age. It gets harder to learn. It gets harder to unlearn. It gets easier to do the same thing you have done the whole time and to expect the same response. This process gets more and more concentrated until suddenly you are demented. You don't know that it's 2010, almost 2011, suddenly you're stuck in 1984. Suddenly everyone is your honey, or your special version of the boogey man, and you can't imagine anything other than the 100 stories that are still active in your mind. When somebody reminds you of something, you are off to the races, galloping down memory lane. The right turn or left split or U-turn spot are not seen, only that familiar story with all its referents. Santa clause playing bagpipe riding a unicycle is not even there.
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