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When small health problems--say, hearing problems, eyesight issues, or even denture fit--add up, the combined effect can increase a person's risk for Alzheimer's disease. This unexpected finding was reported July 13 in Neurology. But other findings about Alzehimer's risk have also lately emerged.
For instance, scientists have found that both having the APOE e4 gene variant and living in a hazardous neighborhood can impair cognition. And since the e4 variant is a strong predictor of increased risk for Alzheimer's, and even small decrements in cognitive function predict dementia risk, it could be that people who have the e4 variant and live in a "hazardous" neighborhood are in even greater danger of developing Alzhemer's than those who have the e4 variant and do not live in a hazardous neighborhood.
Find more information about this study and other recents findings from Alzheimer's research in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/46/8/27.full and in the Textbook of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias, published by APPI, which can be ordered at http://www.appi.org/.