Neuro symptoms in pregnancy rarely stroke-related
Neurological symptoms that occur during pregnancy are rarely caused by a mini-stroke, or “transient ischemic attack” (TIA), but instead are usually associated with migraine with “aura,” according to a report in BMC Medicine.
Aura refers to symptoms that may precede the onset of a migraine (and also seizures), such as seeing flashing lights or temporary vision loss.
Caffeine may slow cognitive decline in older women
Several cups of coffee or tea per day seem to slow the loss of brain cells in elderly women, but caffeine has no effect on dementia itself, according to results of a new study.
Dr. Karen Ritchie, a scientist at INSERM U888 in Montpellier, France, and her associates followed 2,820 men and 4,197 women, age 65 or older, and free of dementia. The team assessed the participants’ caffeine consumption in terms of 100-milligram “units”; one cup of coffee was considered to contain 100 mg of caffeine and tea, 50 mg.
Bullying tied to mental health problems later
Boys who bully or are victims of bullies may have a higher risk of mental health disorders as young men, a study published Monday suggests.
The findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, are based on a group of 2,540 boys Finnish boys. At age 8, the boys were asked whether and how often they bullied other children, were targets of bullying, or both. Parents and teachers also answered questions about any psychiatric symptoms the boys had.
Link identified between Alzheimer’s disease and glaucoma
UK scientists have shown for the first time that key proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease are also implicated in glaucoma, the major cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. Research carried out at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and funded by the Wellcome Trust has also shown that novel drugs being trialled for Alzheimer’s disease which target this protein may be used to treat glaucoma.
The research team has developed a new technology for visualising nerve cell damage in the retina, known as Detection of Apoptosing Retinal Cells. Using this technology, they demonstrated that the protein beta-amyloid, which causes the so-called “plaque” lesions in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, also leads to nerve cell death in the retina. The research is published online today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
