From the ArcaMax Publishing, Health & Fitness Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/healthtips/s-388607-474375
NEW YORK (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they have found more evidence
of a maternal genetic link to Alzheimer's disease.
New York University researchers found reductions in glucose brain
metabolism among individuals with a maternal history of Alzheimer's
disease, but not among those with a paternal history of the disease or
those with neither parent affected.
This lack of ability for the brain to use glucose efficiently seen in
those whose mothers had Alzheimer's may predispose such people to
Alzheimer's disease.
"Our new study shows that subjects with a mother with Alzheimer's show
similarities with Alzheimer's patients," study leader Lisa Mosconi of
the Center for Brain Health at the NYU Langone Medical Center said in
a statement. "They have metabolic reductions in the brain regions that
are typically affected by Alzheimer's disease, which worsen over
time."
Using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans and a technique that
labels glucose with a chemical tracer, the researchers studied glucose
metabolism in the brains of 66 cognitively normal subjects between
ages 50 and 82 over a two-year period. Twenty had mothers with the
disease, nine had fathers with Alzheimer's and the rest had no family
history of the disease.
The finding was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International
Alzheimer's Disease Conference in Chicago.