XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: libs@rlosers.com   
      
   All liberals have weak brains and will die of dementia.   
      
   The brain area involved develops late in adolescence and   
   degenerates early during ageing.   
      
   At the moment, it is difficult for doctors to predict which   
   people might develop either condition.   
      
   The findings, in the journal PNAS, hint at a potential way to   
   diagnose those at risk earlier, experts say.   
      
   Although they caution that "much more research is needed into   
   how to bring these exciting discoveries into the clinic".   
      
   Weak spot   
   The Medical Research Council team who carried out the study did   
   MRI brain scans on 484 healthy volunteers aged between eight and   
   85 years.   
      
   They looked at how the brain naturally changes as people age.   
      
   The images revealed a common pattern - the parts of the brain   
   that were the last to develop were also the first to show signs   
   of age-related decline.   
      
   These brain regions - a network of nerve cells or grey matter -   
   co-ordinate "high order" information coming from the different   
   senses, such as sight and sound.   
      
   When the researchers looked at scans of patients with   
   Alzheimer's disease and scans of patients with schizophrenia   
   they found the same brain regions were affected.   
      
   The findings fit with what other experts have suspected - that   
   although distinct, Alzheimer's and schizophrenia are linked.   
      
   Prof Hugh Perry of the MRC said: "Early doctors called   
   schizophrenia 'premature dementia' but until now we had no clear   
   evidence that the same parts of the brain might be associated   
   with two such different diseases. This large-scale and detailed   
   study provides an important, and previously missing, link   
   between development, ageing and disease processes in the brain.   
      
   "It raises important issues about possible genetic and   
   environmental factors that may occur in early life and then have   
   lifelong consequences. The more we can find out about these very   
   difficult disorders, the closer we will come to helping   
   sufferers and their families."   
      
   Dr Michael Bloomfield of University College London said:   
   "Schizophrenia can be potentially devastating but at the moment   
   it's very difficult to predict with certainty who is going to   
   have a good prognosis and who might have a poor one.   
      
   "This study brings us a step closer to being able to make this   
   prediction, so patients could in the future receive better   
   targeted treatments."   
      
   Armed with this new knowledge, it may also be possible to   
   understand how to prevent the brain changes before they occur,   
   he said   
      
   http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30180804   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)