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  Many of our seniors having surgery suffer cognitive loss and the question that often comes up is does the anesthesia or surgery itself cause the problem. An article published in the September issue of Annals of Surgery compared the effect of anesthesia alone vs anesthesia plus surgery and showed that in fact the surgery itself is the most potent in...

  A study out of Singapore, published in Annals of Oncology in March of 2012, showed that breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy had symptoms of chemobrain manifested by memory loss, difficulty in decision making and speech problems. Patients were generally not aware they had symptoms because they attributed them to fatigue, anxiety, and mood...

Medications with anticholinergic activity, which include many drugs taken by older adults, cause cognitive impairment. Over the counter sleeping aids such as Excedrin PM, Nytol, Sominex, Tylenol PM, and Unisom are especially problematic. Other drugs include Paxil, Detol, Demerol, and Elavil. Anticholinergics work by blocking the brain's neurotransmitter,...

Dr. Len and Nurse Vicki review the long list of drugs that have the potential to create cognitive decline in the elderly. The value and importance of lifestyle is highlighted and the lack of effectiveness of drugs to treat cognitive decline is revealed.      

A Rhode Island Hospital retrospective study published in the July 2014 issue of the journal, Alzheimer's & Dementia, showed that the participants with normal cognition at the start of the study who reported taking fish oil had fewer signs of Alzheimer's disease. These patients were followed every 6 months with MRI scans. Those people with...

A study published in Neurology in December of 2011 showed that people with higher serum levels of vitamins and essential fatty acids had better cognitive ability and bigger brains on MRI studies.            

  Women who abruptly and prematurely suffer from estrogen deficiency caused by surgical menopause have a two fold increase in cognitive decline and dementia. This conclusion comes from research published in the March issue of the journal, Brain that was done on rats with surgical menopause, of which some were given no estrogen replacement, some late...

  Vitamin D3 and curcumin stimulate macrophages to clear the beta amyloid from the brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease according to an article published in the March issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Low levels of vitamin D3 are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Researchers studied macrophages isolated from patients...