Opera web browser - download

Search

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Benci Matematika !!!

Apa!!! Kalian benci matematika, kenapa kita dilahirkan di dunia ini dengan peralatan lengkap untuk bekerja dengan angka, akan tetapi kita membiarkannya sia-sia dan hanya menggunakannya sekali-kali dan tidak dengan maksimal. Semua ini dibuktikan dengan adanya penelitian oleh sekelompok psikolog yang melakukan penelitian terhadap bayi. Bayi ini lalu diberi mainan emut yang dihubungkan dengan pendeteksi tekanan. Ketika bayi ini melihat ada satu buah mainan di balik tirai dan kemudian melihat ada dua mainan di balik tirai berikutnya, pada layar pendeteksi tekanan menunjukkan adanya tekanan yang bertambah tinggi, dan ini menunjukkan bahwa bayi ini tahu kalau jumlah mainan di balik tirai pertama dan kedua adalah berbeda. Akan tetapi bayi ini hanya dapat mengenal sedikat angka

Alzheimer's Disease

Taken from MSN
Breakthrough Discoveries
De-mystifying and attacking Alzheimer’s disease
By Betsy Noxon for MSN Health & Fitness


As a grocery checker, Judy Mallon usually punched in product codes without hesitating. When new ones were added, though, she began having a hard time remembering them. Then, she had difficulty understanding the new customer check authorization system. When keeping her work schedule straight became a problem and local driving trips became confusing, Judy knew something just wasn’t right and she sought a physician for help. After a series of tests, a neurologist confirmed Judy had early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Forgetting where you left your car keys or why you walked into a room is a common occurrence as we age. Sometimes it’s just a matter of stress. But when the forgetfulness becomes more profound—losing a lifetime of memories, changes in personality and delusions – then the reality of Alzheimer’s disease suddenly sets in.

The realism of Alzheimer’s disease as a health care crisis has gained significant momentum in the last few years to a point of reaching epidemic proportions; it’s now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. The statistics are staggering:

More than 26 million people worldwide—including about 5 million Americans—have Alzheimer’s
One in eight people over 65, and one of two over age 85, are afflicted
As the 78 million U.S. baby boomers pass age 65, the number of Alzheimer’s patients is expected to reach up to 12 million
If no treatment or cure is found, as many as 106 million people worldwide may have Alzheimer’s by 2050, experts say
These numbers may seem overwhelming, but researchers have been working diligently to understand the disease and find better treatments. “We are just now, at the end of 25 years of modern research, learning about the disease and looking for ways to intervene. The fact is, we are poised for the development of second generation medications,” says Bill Thies, Ph.D., vice president of Medical and Scientific Relations for the Alzheimer’s Association, which is based in Chicago.

Finding a cure is a priority for Mallon, who was faced with the diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease at age 58. At that time, Judy and her husband Larry, of Aurora, Ill., participated in a yearlong double-blinded clinical trial testing an oral medication for nine months. Larry said they saw some improvement. Now, Judy is 63 years old and was recently selected to go through screening and testing to participate in a three-and-a-half year study for an Alzheimer’s vaccine.

“This vaccine is cutting-edge therapy, which has had some success with mice and monkeys. Our family all agree to be aggressive and cutting edge,” says Larry. Judy adds, “I’ll do anything I can for future research.” They admit they are a little selfish in wanting to help themselves, but know a lot of people are suffering too and feel the trial will benefit everyone.

Today’s treatment options

In the 1970s, pathologists found amyloid plaques (gooey clusters that form between nerve cells) and tangles of protein fragments present on the brain’s nerve cells, causing them to degenerate. Now, the challenge is to understand why these plaques and tangles form, then stop them from forming and damaging nerves. Clinicians currently manage Alzheimer’s by using modern medications which give some patients modest, but limited, benefits. What they fail to do is get at the cause of the disease; treating the symptoms but not modifying the disease.

Two classes of medications the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for use include cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine. “Cholinesterase inhibitors block the breakdown of a chemical neurotransmitter in the brain that becomes deficient early in Alzheimer’s,” says Dr. Sam Gandy, associate director of Mount Sinai’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in New York City and chair of the Alzheimer Association’s Medical and Scientific Advisory Council. “They act by helping the brain compensate for early chemical deficiency. They turn the clock back for about six months for some patients, but the clock keeps ticking.”

Namenda, the other medication currently being used for Alzheimer’s, blocks the poisonous chemical in the brain that becomes potent with the presence of amyloid plaques.
Research shifts target

As scientists have studied the brain’s neurons, they’ve come to better understand the cause—contributing Alzheimer’s to the buildup of amyloid proteins. But by the time the amyloid can be identified, the damage to the brain’s nerve cells is done. It’s only been in the last few years that researchers have targeted medications to prevent the damage from occurring at the get-go.

“We have a robust pipeline of new medications in development,” Gandy says, “many aimed at the buildup of amyloid and are disease modifying.” He explains that clinicians hope to stabilize further decline from occurring and ideally reverse symptoms of Alzheimer’s in the long run, blocking progression and modifying the damage.

To target and block gooey amyloids from forming in the first place and causing damage, new therapies called plaque busters are being tested. Just like the name indicates, the “busters” break up the clumping which causes Alzheimer’s before it gets a chance to develop. Then they allow the brain to go through the normal process of removing the toxic amyloid.

To guard against suffering from Alzheimer’s at all, vaccines aimed at boosting the body’s own immune system to fight toxins are aggressively being tested. Today, scientists are making synthetic antibodies in the lab, Gandy says.

Investigators are also looking at medications already on the market that are used for other health issues to learn how they may change the course of Alzheimer’s. Gammagard, an immune system treatment, showed some progress in improving memory in a small study, while another small study found cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure medication helped fend off the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

Still, some controversy exists among experts as to what actually causes Alzheimer’s. Recent breakthrough research raises the question that Alzheimer’s could be a third form of diabetes.

Studies led by William Klein, Ph.D., of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., found a connection between insulin in the brain and Alzheimer’s. Klein’s team discovered that different toxic proteins called ADDLs, which are not normally found in the brain, remove insulin—important for learning and shaping memory—from nerve cells, causing memory loss. “This sets the stage for developing a type of Alzheimer’s vaccine that can come in and neutralize the toxins floating in the brain,” says Klein.

Klein’s study, he notes, has opened new paths for finding a cure that may involve similar drugs that currently treat type 2 diabetes.

Clinical trials lead the way

Dr. Raj Shah, principal investigator at the Rush University Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago, is working on several vaccine trials, including the one Judy Mallon is participating in, and ultimately leading the path to better treatments for Alzheimer’s. “Over the past six years, we’ve worked on developing a portfolio of trials to cover the spectrum from early to late onset of the disease,” says Shah.

Now, Shah notes, they are going into more preventative studies that involve a different approach – home based surveys as well as looking at biomarkers, neuroimaging and developing better study designs.

It’s taking time, but worldwide efforts by leading researchers and patients are finding answers toward a cure for this disease that affects so many people. Like the Mallons and many others, they are eager to do what they can to attack the disease. Full steam ahead.