By Ben Brumfield | Published July 6, 2017
“When George Wright buried his wife, Beth, in 2013, he was probably easing into the same illness that had killed her at age 84. But his adult children hadn’t yet noticed that he, too, had Alzheimer’s disease.
Their eyes had been fixed on their mother while her mind unraveled, and doctors had no way of stopping or slowing the deterioration. Her last three years had been particularly painful for them.
In the 116 years since Dr. Alzheimer was unable to help Deter, unfortunately, not much has changed. The research path has been vexing, while the need for progress has become urgent — especially as people live longer.
Among people who make it to age 85, some 50 percent will have Alzheimer’s, which afflicts slightly more women than men. Consequently, most everyone knows someone who is suffering or has died from the disease.” Read more here
“A surprise cure for Alzheimer’s is unlikely, but researcher Annabelle Singer has had some jaw-dropping results with diseased mice using a simple light.
Singer has reversed the research approach. Instead of focusing on how proteins might cause brain dysfunction, she looks at how brain activity deficits might contribute to the disease.
“A particular activity is lacking. It’s called gamma,” said Singer, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Gamma is a kind of rhythm for neuron activity, like a techno dance beat for the brain, with a very specific frequency of 40 hertz.” Read more here