Before you take another bite of that triple-burger combo meal, you might want to read about Susanne Akterin's research at the Karolinska Institute.

Akterin was a doctoral student at the Swedish medical university when she conducted her thesis on the effect of fast food nutrition on the brains of mice. After nine months of being fed a diet full of fat, sugar, and cholesterol -- the basic make-up of most fast food -- the mice showed brain pathology similar to the beginnings of Alzheimer's disease.

But these mice weren't your everyday rodents. Instead, they were genetically modified to mimic the effects of the ApoE-4 gene in humans. The ApoE-4 gene affects how cholesterol is processed, and those who have this gene are at an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.

What does this mean? Atkerin herself noted, "All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer’s can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public." They key to her note of caution is that all of the mice were primed to function as if they had the ApoE-4 gene, so the most we can infer from the results is that people with ApoE-4 might be raising their risk of developing Alzheimer's if they eat fast food. We can't generalize it to those who don't have the ApoE-4 gene.

But I still think the results are important. I recently read a fascinating book called The ApoE Gene Diet by Pamela McDonald, who makes a compelling case for the interaction between genes and diet. In fact, I think she'd agree wholeheartedly that those with the ApoE-4 gene should avoid fast food.

Plus, we already know that most fast food is associated with other health problems such as obesity, heart disease, and high cholesterol. When I consider these dangers, along with the fact that most of us do not know whether we carry the ApoE-4 gene and might not ever know, avoiding fast food seems like a (ahem) no brainer to me.

Read my review of The ApoE Gene Diet

Photo © Microsoft

When we think of Alzheimer's disease, the word "thankful" doesn't often come to mind. Alzheimer's is emotionally painful for everyone involved, and caregiving sometimes feels like a thankless job. But as I reflect on the Thanksgiving holiday, I realize that I have several reasons to be thankful:

1. I'm thankful for the millions of family caregivers -- the silent heroes of our society -- who care for their relatives with courage and grace.
2. I'm thankful for the millions of professional caregivers, including the Certified Nursing Assistants who don't often get the recognition they deserve, for the compassionate care they've chosen as their life's work.
3. I'm thankful for the agencies and organizations that provide information, practical resources, and emotional support to families affected by Alzheimer's disease.
4. I'm thankful for the scientists, physicians, and others who are working hard to find a cure.
5. I'm thankful for the advocates, which include elected officials, advocacy workers, and volunteers, who fight for more research funding and an increase in accessible services.
6. And most importantly, I'm thankful for the people in my life with Alzheimer's or a related dementia who have taught me so much. I know that I'm a better person because of my time with them.

The great thing is that I could have made this list much longer. There are so many kinds of people working quietly, steadily, and humbly to make the world a better place for those with Alzheimer's and their families. Who are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Photo © Microsoft

I'm pleased to see that etanercept treatment for Alzheimer's disease is receiving more attention among the scientific community.

For those not familiar with this approach, it involves a perispinal injection of etanercept, a medication that reduces the amount of TNF (tumor necrosis factor-alpha) in the brain. TNF regulates the brain's neural impulses, but elevated levels can disrupt brain function. Higher levels of TNF have been associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Etanercept (brand name Enbrel) is FDA-approved for treatment of a number of immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, but it is not FDA-approved as a treatment for Alzheimer's. The treatment is currently only available in private clinics such as the Institute for Neurological Research, which is run by Dr. Edward Tobinick, the pioneer of this approach.

Dr. Tobinick's research on perispinal etanercept treatment for Alzheimer's disease has been cited in over 20 scientific journals in 2008, including:

• Journal of Neuroscience
• The American Journal of Pathology
• Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
• Biological Psychiatry
• Journal of Clinical Investigation
• Brain Research

This level of attention is significant because the treatment has previously evoked controversy surrounding whether or not it really works, whether it is safe, and why powerful organizations such as the Alzheimer's Association and Amgen -- the makers of Enbrel -- do not offer their resources to initiate large-scale clinical trials to answer many of the questions about this treatment.

I certainly don't pretend to know whether etanercept is the answer to Alzheimer's, and I fully advocate clinical trials to test the treatment's efficacy and safety. I just wish these trials were happening, well, yesterday. I'm haunted by the testimonials I've received from several family members who tell me that this treatment has done wonders for their loved ones. What haunts me is the question of how many more people might be helped if the treatment was more accessible?

Illustration © Alzheimer's Disease Education & Referral Center

Many of you know that Memory Walk is the Alzheimer's Association's signature event to raise awareness about Alzheimer's disease and raise funds for Alzheimer's research and services.

Memory Walks are held between September and November each year in hundreds of communities across the United States. This year, there was even a Memory Walk in Iraq organized by U.S. troops!

Were you one of the 200,000+ people who participated in a Memory Walk this year? I participated in my eighth straight Memory Walk last weekend, and the experience just keeps getting better each year. If you were part of a Memory Walk this fall, tell me about it by posting a comment to this blog.

If Memory Walk isn't your kind of thing, keep in mind that there are lots of ways to make a difference in the lives of families affected by Alzheimer's disease. For ideas, see my article on Volunteering for Alzheimer's.

Photo © Carrie Hill