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April 9, 2013 Drug companies have developed several Alzheimer's drugs that seemed to work in mice but did not help people with the disease. So scientists inserted human genes into rats in hopes of getting a better model for testing the drugs.

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March 19, 2013 Deaths from the disease have increased by 68 percent between 2000 and 2010. One reason: We're living longer, and deaths from other causes, like heart disease and prostate cancer, are going down.

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January 31, 2013 A drug used in brain scans to help doctors detect clumps of protein associated with Alzheimer's disease was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last year. Now Medicare officials are weighing whether to cover it.

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January 10, 2013 Neuroscientists have found that bilingual seniors were better at certain skills that can fade with age than their monolingual peers, which could help protect them against Alzheimer's disease. But the researchers don't know whether learning a second language in adulthood would provide the same benefit.

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December 26, 2012 The year saw some disappointments in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's. But the setbacks were offset by progress in other areas. The upshot from this year's mixed results, some scientists say, is that treatment for Alzheimer's needs to start long before forgetfulness and muddled thinking are apparent.

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October 17, 2012 New research suggests that by the time an Alzheimer's patient is diagnosed, many key neurons are already dead. Neuroscientists say it's possible that several recent trials of drugs for Alzheimer's have failed because the drugs were given after symptoms had already started to appear.

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August 24, 2012 It's the latest setback in a field marked by failure. Earlier this month, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson said they were dropping development of a similar experimental drug after big clinical studies showed it wasn't working.

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August 16, 2012 KHNWould you get tested for your potential risk for Alzheimer's disease, even though the prediction is imperfect and there is no cure for the condition? Studies suggest people can handle the results just find.

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August 7, 2012 Pfizer's research on an experimental drug that attacks plaques in the brain has been discontinued. But scientists say they're hopeful that new treatments that attack a specific protein in plaques will have better success.

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July 11, 2012 The mutation is rare but it appears to protect some people from developing the disease. The finding is an encouraging sign for drug researchers looking for medicines that have a similar effect in the brain.

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May 14, 2012 Storytelling can be a way of giving people with dementia a low-stress way to communicate, one that does not rely on their memories. And it can give caregivers a chance to reconnect with their loved ones.

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April 19, 2012 Activity fends off Alzheimer's disease in people over 80, according to new research that tracked the movements of people in their 80s. And just doing stuff counts. It doesn't have to be "exercise."

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April 4, 2012 Research finds that bilingual children are better at "executive processing," which includes being able to pay attention, plan and organize thoughts.

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February 29, 2012 Caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's disease can drain families' bank accounts. But there is also a high emotional price to be paid. The administration's federal budget would fund more support for family caregivers.

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January 25, 2012 Men are diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment earlier than women, perhaps because of physical health issues. That's the word from a study of older people in Minnesota. But by their mid-80s, both men and women suffer the same level of loss of thinking capacity, the researchers found.

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