Patients as young as 20 exhibit signs of Alzheimer’s disease, research highlighted in the Daily Mail concludes.
The study, by researchers from Chicago, involved examining the brains of older people, with and without Alzheimer’s, alongside those of a small number of people aged between 20 and 66.
It revealed that the toxic protein beta-amyloid had started building up in some 20 year-olds.
The findings throw up the prospect of treating people drugs in the very earliest stages of illness, the website reports. Alzheimer’s Society head of research Dr James Pickett cautioned that the study was only small. He added: ‘More research is needed to explain why only a proportion of people with a build-up of amyloid go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.’
About two thirds of people in Britain want an advertising blackout on junk food until after 9pm – to cut the likelihood of children having unhealthy diets, the Guardian reports.
Its conclusions are drawn from a survey commissioned by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. The College’s president, Dr Hillary Cass, said: ‘This poll shows that the voting public care as much about child health as they care for the elderly.’
Death rates from smoking are higher than previously thought – with about 67% dying from related illness, according to the Independent.
It had been believed that about half of smokers were killed by illnesses such as heart disease and cancer – but researchers now insist that this figure should be revised upwards. Their findings are based on studies relating to 200,000 people in Australia. Lead scientist Professor Emily Banks said: ‘Even with the very low rates of smoking that we have in Australia we found that smokers have around three fold the risk of premature death of those who have never smoked.’
Listening to loud music for more than an hour can bring deafness, the Daily Mirror reports. The warning comes from the World Health Organisation (WHO), whose experts say that audio devices should be played at no more than 60% volume. WHO’s figures show that 43 million 12-35 year-olds are currently affected by hearing loss.
