Support ACA’s 12th annual Glow for a Cure night golf tournament, July 25th, Highland Park Golf Course. There are a limited number of teams still available, and this event has sold out every year. The tournament is presented by ACA’s Junior Board and supports the Lindy Harrell Pre-doctoral Scholars Program in Alzheimer’s Research at UAB. ACA has funded 8 student researchers since 2019. Spectator tickets are $40 and include live music, auction, BBQ dinner, beer, wine and specialty Tito’s cocktail. https://alzca.org/glow/
Support Group Meetings:
- ACA’s support group with Miller & Vance, Tuesday, July 15, 11:00 – noon CT. Call (205) 871-7970 ormpiggott@alzca.org. Join us on zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85247427423
- CJFS CARES, Mondays at 3 pm, contact Pam Leonard, pam@cjfsbham.org.
- St Lukes Episcopal Church on Tuesdays at 10:15. Contact Betsy Smith (smith35213@gmail.com) or Janis Cole (janiscarole3@aol.com).
- West Alabama Area Agency on Aging, Caregiver Support Group, Tuesdays, contact Robin Montgomery, robin.montgomery@westal.org.
- M4A’s Caregiver Support Group, 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month, 10 – 11:30 am, Montevallo. Contact Robyn James, rjames@m4a.org.
- The Oaks on Parkwood, 4th Tuesday’s, 10:00 am, Contact: Karen Glover, karenrglover@gmail.com.
- CJFS CARES, Tuesdays, 7:00 pm, contact Pam Leonard, pam@cjfsbham.org.
- United Way Area Agency on Aging of Jefferson County, 3rd Tuesday of each month 11:30-12:30, contact Valarie Lawson, vlawson@uwaaa.org
- Eastaboga, 2nd Tuesday, 6:00 pm. Contact Julie Slagle jslagle@lakesidehospice.org
- Trussville, 3rd Tuesday, 6:00 pm. Contact Julie Slagle jslagle@lakesidehospice.org
- Covenant Presbyterian Church, first Wednesday of the month, 10 am, church parlor, Contact Kristian Hatley at Khatley@covpress.com.
- M4A virtual support group, 3rd Wednesdays 2:00 – 3:00 pm. Contact Chalane Mims, cmims@m4a.org.
- Asbury United Methodist Church 1st and 3rd Thursdays at 1:00, contact Maggie Dunaway at mdunaway@asburyonline.org.
- AFTD support group, second Tuesday of the month. Amber Guy: 251-281-5344.
- Discovery United Methodist Church, Hoover, has moved to Holy Apostles Church: 424 Emery Dr. Hoover, AL 35244. 2nd and 4th Thursdays 10:30-noon, contact Michele Elrod: Michelerelrod@att.net.
- St. Mark’s UMC, Vestavia Hills, Fridays at 1 pm. Contact Donna Baird: (205)717-9880.
Alzheimer’s News:
Rare Alzheimer’s variants strike younger and act faster. Unusual symptoms mean they’re often missed by doctors. Most people with Alzheimer’s disease begin to experience its best-known symptoms, like memory loss, in their late 60s. But about 3% of Americans with Alzheimer’s develop symptoms years earlier, and research shows that when Alzheimer’s strikes early, it’s more likely to present in unusual ways — affecting functions like vision or speech first. At a molecular level, all Alzheimer’s cases involve the build-up of two abnormal proteins: beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The amount of amyloid throughout the brain is about the same between these different variants of Alzheimer’s disease. It is tau protein that localizes to various different areas of the brain.
- In typical cases of Alzheimer’s, tau tangles first spread through the brain’s medial temporal lobe, a relatively isolated region that includes the hippocampus, the brain’s memory hub and navigation system.
- When tau tangles first attack the posterior — or back — of the brain, they cause posterior cortical atrophy. In these cases, neurodegeneration begins in the occipital lobe, the brain’s visual processing center. Early symptoms include blurred vision and difficulty reading.
- In a rarer variant of Alzheimer’s, tau tangles accumulate in the left temporal lobe of the brain, where most people form and make sense of language. These cases result in logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia and cause difficulties with communication. People with this type of aphasia will struggle to recall specific words.
- When tau builds up in the brain’s frontal lobes, where decision-making and planning occur, this can cause a behavioral variant of Alzheimer’s disease, where changes in a person’s personality appear first causing a person to lose interest in the things they enjoy, develop new repetitive behaviors, and begin to act inappropriately in social situations.
It is not yet clear why tau tangles start in different places in different people’s brains. Researchers speculate that both genetics and environmental factors may play a role in determining an individual’s unique tau pathology.
https://www.beingpatient.com/vision-problems-language-loss-atypical-kinds-of-alzheimers/
Having a positive outlook on life may protect against middle-aged memory loss, according to a large new analysis. Researchers found that older adults who reported having higher levels of general well-being scored higher on memory tests over the next 16 years. Researchers tracked 10,760 men and women over 50 who were part of a long-running study of mental health and aging. None had Alzheimer’s disease or other serious memory problems at the start of the study period. The researchers had participants complete a quality-of-life survey every two years over the next 16 years. Researchers found that those who scored higher on the well-being assessment were more likely to have better scores on subsequent memory tests. https://www.alzinfo.org/articles/prevention/a-positive-outlook-may-be-good-for-the-aging-brain/
Dementia incidence among veterans varied significantly by US region in a new study, with the Southeast showing a 25% higher risk and the Northwest and Rocky Mountains each showing a 23% higher risk compared to the Mid-Atlantic. Investigators said the findings highlight the need for a geographically tailored approach to address dementia risk factors and diagnostic services. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/dementia-risk-may-follow-geographic-pattern-2025a1000gr6?ecd=mkm_ret_250629_mscpmrk_pcp_top-content_etid7529512&uac=407526BK&impID=7529512
Neurologists are dusting off medications that were never designed for Alzheimer’s disease — antidepressants, diabetes pills, even an erectile-dysfunction drug — and writing new prescriptions for people living with, or hoping to avoid, dementia. This Being Patient article describes potential benefits (and risks) of repurposing drugs for Alzheimer’s that are FDA approved for soothing else entirely. These drugs include Viagra; Rexulti; metformin and antipsychotics which have also been linked to higher rates of hospitalization. https://www.beingpatient.com/prescriptions-everyday-drugs-alzheimers-symptoms/
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved changing the prescribing information for Eli Lilly’s Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla to allow more gradual dosing to lower the risk of a potentially dangerous type of brain swelling. Kisunla, given as a monthly infusion, is part of a class of drugs designed to clear an Alzheimer’s-related protein called beta amyloid from the brain. It was approved by the FDA just over a year ago for adults with early-stage Alzheimer’s after a study showed it slowed progression of memory and thinking problems by 29% compared with a placebo. https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/fda-oks-gradual-dosing-alzheimers-drug-lower-aria-risk-2025a1000i6m?ecd=wnl_dne8_250711_MSCPEDIT_etid7560430&uac=407526BK&impID=7560430
Cycling, alone or combined with other modes of travel, was associated with a 19% reduced risk for all-cause dementia compared with traveling by car or other nonactive transportation modes, a new prospective cohort study showed. Cycling alone or mixed with other transportation modes was also linked to increased hippocampal volume, which has been shown to be associated with better brain health. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/could-traveling-bicycle-protect-against-dementia-2025a1000gzr?ecd=wnl_sci_tech_250709_MSCPEDIT_etid7554734&uac=407526BK&impID=7554734
Insulin resistance, detected using a simple and readily available blood test, may flag cognitive decline in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), preliminary results of a new study suggested. Using the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index to measure insulin resistance, investigators found that cognitive decline was four times faster in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD who had the highest insulin resistance levels compared to those with lower levels. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/insulin-resistance-linked-faster-cognitive-decline-ad-2025a1000hpp?ecd=wnl_dne1_250707_MSCPEDIT_etid7549965&uac=407526BK&impID=7549965