Month: May 2015

Deposits called amyloid plaques may appear in the brain 20 years or more before people develop signs of dementia, a research review finds. These plaques are more often found in older adults. But they also are seen more often in younger adults with a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the study showed. The study was based on previous research. It included 1,359 people with diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease, 538 people with other types of dementia and autopsy results for 1,369 others with Alzheimer’s. The living subjects all had PET scans to look for amyloid plaques in the brain. Among those with normal memory and thinking skills, these plaques were more common with age. About 10% of 50-year-olds had them. That increased to 33% at age 80 and 44% at age 90. Some people carried the APOE4 gene variant, which is linked with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.

Taking corticosteroid pills for 2 weeks may help people with sciatica move better, a new study finds. But the pills did not reduce pain any more than a placebo did. The study included 269 people who had endured back pain caused by a herniated disk for 3 months or less. The average was 4 weeks. They were randomly assigned to receive either prednisone pills or placebo pills. People took the pills for 3 weeks. Researchers assessed their pain and function before and after the treatment. Function improved more for the prednisone group than for the placebo group. But there was no difference between groups in measurements of pain. The Journal of the American Medical Association published the study. MedPage Today wrote about it May 19.