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Memory loss is not enough for a diagnosis of the dreaded disease. Relying on clinical symptoms of memory loss to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease may miss other forms of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s that don’t initially affect memory, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study, according to newswise.com. “These individuals are often overlooked in clinical trial designs and are missing out on opportunities to participate in clinical trials to treat Alzheimer’s,” says first study author Emily Rogalski, associate professor at Northwestern’s Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Now here's the truly scary part. There is more than one kind of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer’s can cause language problems, disrupt an individual’s behavior, personality and judgment or even affect someone’s concept of where objects are in space. If it affects personality, it may cause lack of inhibition. “Someone who was very shy may go up to grocery store clerk -- who is a

So you thought the worst thing was losing your job, in the recession.  But now a new study is finding there's even more bad news.  Mid-life economic recessions lead to cognitive decline, according to medicalnewsdaily.com. "L ay-offs, lower pay and downward job mobility are all a depressing reality of economic recessions. But new research suggests these factors not only affect our bank accounts, but also our risk of cognitive decline in later life," the Web site reports. Previous research has suggested working conditions can affect build-up of "cognitive reserve," which can in turn influence cognitive performance later in life, medicalnewsdaily.com notes, quoting the new study published in the   Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health . Because higher cognitive ability from the outset could influence whether individuals are in more favorable jobs or working environments, the researchers wanted to know whether economic recessions could make a difference

Loneliness stinks.  But did you know it's as bad as obesity, high blood pressure, lack of exercise or smoking when it comes to illness and early death, Jane Brody reports today in The New York Times. Brody quotes a doctor who has studied this,  John T. Cacioppo , an award-winning psychologist at the University of Chicago, who says loneliness is so detrimental and harmful because it "undermines people’s ability to self-regulate."  In one study done in Chicago, people who scored high on a test to determine loneliness ate far more fatty foods than people whose score was lower. In another study, people made to feel disconnected from others ate many more cookies than those who felt more connected.  Cacioppo told Brody that lonely people will do whatever they can to make themselves feel better -- eat, smoke, drink, (in my case) shop, even have indiscriminate sex -- all to get rid of that clammy, awful feeling. Loneliness can also hurt us by increasing stress hormones and