People 70 and older who eat food high in carbohydrates have nearly four times the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, and the danger also rises with a diet heavy in sugar, Mayo Clinic researchers have found.

Those who consume a lot of protein and fat relative to carbohydrates are less likely to become cognitively impaired, the study found.

Researchers tracked 1,230 people ages… read more

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have identified a set of experimental drugs called LRRK2 inhibitors that may go beyond symptom relief to directly counter the inflammation and nerve cell death at the root of Parkinson’s.

These effects have been suggested in mouse and cell culture studies meant to approximate human disease.

Most Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients are still treated with a 42-year-old drug called L-DOPA, which… read more

Electrical stimulation using extradural electrodes — placed underneath the skull but not implanted in the brain — is a safe approach with meaningful benefits for patients with Parkinson’s disease, reports the October issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

The technique, called extradural motor cortex stimulation (EMCS), may provide a less-invasive alternative to electrical deep brain stimulation (DBS) for some patients with the… read more

Scientists from the University of Leeds have found that the protein called prion helps our brains to absorb zinc, which is believed to be crucial to our ability to learn and the well-being of our memory.

The findings published on Tuesday 16 October in Nature Communications (open access) show that prion protein regulates the amount of zinc in the brain by helping cells absorb it… read more