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| Vitamin B could delay onset of Alzheimer's Some participants in Oxford University trial see their neurological decline reduce by as much as 50% after using vitamin B tabletsTaking daily supplements of B vitamins may delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease, scientists have claimed.The discovery that people in the early stages of failing memory can retain more of their mental faculties for longer if they take the tablets regularly could lead to treatments for the condition. Some participants in the Oxford University trial saw their neurological decline reduced by as much as half after using B vitamins.That breakthrough has raised hopes that the vitamins, which are sold in chemists and health food stores, could at least slow down, if not prevent, the shrinkage that affects many older people's brains.Vitamin B tablets are popular among vegans, because they shun some of the foods in which vitamin B is found – fish, meat and milk – and among sufferers of pernicious anaemia."It is our hope that this simple and safe treatment will delay the development of Alzheimer's in many people who suffer from mild memory problems," said David Smith, a professor emeritus in Oxford University's pharmacology department and co-leader of the study. About 1.5m people over 70 in the UK who suffer from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – who have a 50/50 chance of going on to develop full-blown dementia within five years – could benefit from the discovery, Smith added. But while the results were "immensely promising", it was not yet certain, he stressed, if B vitamins could slow or prevent the development of Alzheimer's. [See footnote]Healthy middle-aged people hoping to avoid dementia and older people exhibiting early signs of memory loss might now be tempted to start routinely taking the vitamins, he said. But they should not do without first talking to their doctor, as the tablets could help stimulate the growth of early-stage cancer, he warned.Chris Kennard, chair of the neurosciences and mental health board at the Medical Research Council, said the findings "bring us a step closer to unravelling the complex neurobiology of ageing and cognitive decline and hold the key to the development of future treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease."Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "These are very important results, with B vitamins now showing a prospect of protecting some people from Alzheimer's in old age. The strong findings must inspire an expanded trial to follow people expected to develop Alzheimer's, and we must hope for further success."Some 820,000 people in the UK have dementia, predominantly Alzheimer's, and their numbers are expected to soar as the population ages.Smith and his colleagues at the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing gave one group of people with MCI daily tablets comprising folic acid, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, and another group a placebo. The vitamins were chosen because they control the amounts of an amino acid called homocysteine in the blood. High levels of homocysteine have been linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer's.After two years participants' brains were examined using MRI scanners and their mental faculties assessed using tests of cognition. They found that those who had been receiving the supplements had experienced on average 30% less brain atrophy than those receiving the dummy pills. The former saw their brains shrink by 0.76% a year, while the placebo group saw theirs reduce by 1.08%. Those who started the trial with the highest levels of homocysteine experienced the greatest benefit – 50% less brain shrinkage.• This footnote was added on 9 September 2010. The study findings were published in an open-access journal, Public Library of Science ONE. A reference in the story text to vegans has been amended to make clear that fish, meat and milk are not the only foods containing significant amounts of vitamin B. Alzheimer'sAgeingNeuroscienceNutritionResearchBiologyMedical researchHealthDenis Campbellguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
56 pilot whales die after stranding on NZ beach By 2010-09-23T02:31:03ZWELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Only 24 of several dozen pilot whales stranded on a remote northern New Zealand beach survived a stormy first night ashore despite rescuers' desperate efforts to save them, officials said Thursday.... hosted.ap.org |
Solar panels come to White House President Barack Obama is to install solar panels on the White House roof, a move lauded by climate activists as symbolic of the US's energy future. bbc.co.uk |
George Osborne's talk of percentages and billions will wash over most of us We've become shockingly innumerate – as reaction to the spending review 2010 will proveStop glaring at the other commuters. Put down that sandwich. Concentrate. We're about to try an experiment that will upend the conventional wisdom about tomorrow's spending review, and cheer up David Cameron while worrying Ed Miliband. Ready?Good, because I want you to read the following statement: "In a double-blind taste test, consumers tasted two cola drinks with a bite of cracker or sip of water before each tasting. Among these consumers, 35% believed that Diet Pepsi tasted most like real cola." Go over that again if need be, because in a while you'll be quizzed on it.But first, take a breather. Go back to giving your fellow commuters the evil eye, if you like. Or simply take the next paragraph a tad more slowly than usual.The claim you've just read was dreamed up by the US-based psychologist Namika Sagara, as part of an exercise to find out how well people understand numbers. First, volunteers read observations like the one above. Then, after a short break, they answered some basic questions to test their comprehension.And now it's your turn. Here's what Sagara asked about that earlier statement: "Most people in a double-blind taste test believe that Diet Pepsi tastes most like real cola – true or false?" What do you reckon?In all probability, you'll have twigged the answer even faster than you could say "don't insult my intelligence": 35% isn't "most people" so it's a lie. Utter tripe. More made up than Gene Simmons. But the original respondents presented with that and other obviously-bogus claims judged them to be true. Not just once or twice, but 65% of the time.Faced with such a striking result, Sagara kept rinsing and repeating her study to see if it was a one-off. She presented the information in different ways. She shortened the time between the statements and the questions. She looked at whether more numerate participants did better than others. Answer: yes, but since her respondents were all university students even the less mathematical were pretty bright sparks.So why did Sagara's undergraduates keep on calling black white and white black? The academic concluded that a significant proportion of even smart people neither understand nor remember numbers. Instead, they are guided by repetition and familiarity (Pepsi being a cornerstone of America's caffeine-industrial complex). And no matter how stark the numbers, how they are presented is far more important.Have another look at the Pepsi statement: it's hardly a sales pitch, but there are no negative words.Let's move downmarket from Madison Avenue advertising to Westminster spin. Tomorrow afternoon, George Osborne will stand up in the Commons and announce the most severe spending cuts since the 1920s. The media thesaurus to describe the occasion has already been well thumbed: historic, milestone, landmark. Hackneyed they may be, but in policy terms such words sound about right – these cuts will have a massive impact on the economy and our public services. But here's the question: will the chancellor's numbers have as dramatic an effect on how voters see him and his colleagues?After all the build-up to cuts week, it seems churlish not to say yes.Certainly, Labour frontbenchers say that once the scale of the budgetary bloodletting is made explicit, they will have their best chance yet to win back disgruntled supporters. This does not seem an unreasonable bet. And yet, thinking about Sagara's work, I wonder if it will be as straightforward.The electorate may be about to be pelted with percentages and bludgeoned with billions; but if college students can't work out that 35% does not a majority make, any war of numbers is likely to leave most voters completely cold.The British have their own evidence that figures do not clarify political arguments so much as muddy them. When the Lib Dems were led by Paddy Ashdown and Charlie Kennedy (oh, happier days), they had a policy of pumping more money into schools by putting a penny on the basic rate of income tax. Polls showed it to be among the best liked of all party pledges. Yet focus groups suggested that part of the reason for its popularity was that quite a few voters thought that all this cash would go into the education system by simply paying an extra penny on their income-tax bills.Ah, but, I can see you saying. Ah, but such statistical illiteracy is confined to only a very few Britons and, um, quite a lot of Americans.Wrong. Last month, pollsters Ipsos Mori asked respondents to convert 20% into a fraction. Over a third of the people they asked either couldn't do so or got it wrong. Of those, 2% thought 20% was a 20th; 6% said they didn't know what a fraction was. And if those figures depress you; imagine how they made this economics journalist feel.For someone who has spent years studying innumeracy, Sagara is more optimistic about how journalists and politicians can overcome it."Make the numbers concrete," she says. "Talk about how the cuts affect local services."Nice try, but it doesn't quite do it for me. As even government ministers acknowledge, one of the crucial things about tomorrow's spending review is precisely that it is big and national – that it is likely to lead to a reshaping of all public services and the welfare state. Sticking to the local and particular may pack more punch but it still won't make the cuts add up.PsychologyMathematicsSpending review 2010Tax and spendingGeorge OsborneAditya Chakraborttyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Pouched killers 'a diverse group' A study of marsupial carnivores' skulls from the past 40 million years shows they rose to the challenge of evolution just like their placental cousins. bbc.co.uk |