|
|
| |
| The fog after long COVID now shows on a scan |
| The complaints were always the same. People with long COVID felt worn out. They could not get going. Their memory slipped. And their tests often came back normal, so some were told to wait it out. |
| A team in Toronto looked deeper. Dr. Jeffrey Meyer at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health scanned 24 people with long COVID. He scanned 24 healthy people of the same age beside them. The scan used a harmless tracer that sticks to dopamine cells. Dopamine is your brain’s go-signal. It drives effort, movement and learning. |
| Let me explain what the scans showed. In three parts of a deep brain hub, the dopamine marker ran 16% to 20% lower. Each dip lined up with a symptom. Lower in the reward zone, less drive. Lower in the movement zone, slower hands and feet. Lower in the zone tied to thinking, worse memory. Picture a town where a few power substations go dark. Each street loses something different. |
| |
Parkinson’s wears down these same cells. So the team plans to test drugs that already help people with Parkinson’s. That trial should start in Toronto within months. |
|
| I could be wrong to lean on this. It is one scan at one moment. The patients averaged 32 years old. And the scan cannot tell whether cells died or just held less dopamine. Still, I believe it matters. It puts a physical cause behind a problem many people were told to shrug off. |
| Has the fog stayed since an infection? Say so plainly to your doctor. I urge you to ask what has been ruled out, and what has not. |
| Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto · eBioMedicine · 2026 |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Deal a hand of cards once a week |
| Find a game with a rival. In Scotland, the University of Edinburgh has tracked more than 1,000 people born in 1936. They were tested at 70, then every three years to 79. The ones who played cards, chess or crosswords held up better on memory and thinking speed. And those who played more in their 70s slipped less. That is a link, not proof. |
| So a Milan team ran a trial. Sixty-nine adults over 55 with early memory worries were split three ways. Some played chess. Some played Go, the old board game of stones. The rest waited their turn. After 12 weekly group sessions, the players got quicker at naming words in a category. Their mood and quality of life rose. Overall thinking scores did not move. |
| So I won’t oversell it. But a game across a table asks a lot at once. You hold cards in mind, plan ahead, read a face and keep score. And it puts a person in the chair opposite you. Set it up the way the Milan trial did. |
| The Protocol |
| When |
| One evening a week, on the same night, with the same partner or group |
| Duration |
| About an hour a session, for 12 weeks |
| Rules |
| A real person across the table, not a screen. Pick a game with a choice every turn: cribbage, gin rummy, chess or dominoes. Keep score on paper and add it up in your head. Once the first month is done, learn one new game. |
| |
| Watch your counting. After a few weeks, notice if you tally the points faster. When the game starts to feel easy, change it. I urge you to try it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Coffee can make a full night shallower |
| Your hours can look fine. James Chmiel and Donata Kurpas in Poland pulled together studies that tracked brain waves during sleep. Caffeine trimmed the slow waves of deep sleep. That held even when people dropped off on time and slept eight hours. The brain simply ran a little more awake all night. For some people, even a morning cup counted. This adds a layer to the caffeine cutoff we ran in August. If you wake tired after a full night, try two weeks without the afternoon cup. |
| Wroclaw Medical University · review · September 2026 |
|
|
| Common preservatives tracked with higher blood pressure |
| Check the label on a sliced loaf. A French team led by Mathilde Touvier followed 112,395 adults for about seven years. They logged every food people ate. Almost everyone ate at least one preservative. One group includes potassium sorbate and sodium nitrite. Its heaviest users had 29% higher odds of high blood pressure. And blood pressure is one of the biggest dementia levers you control. The paper came out in May and made news again this week. It is a records study, not proof. But food cooked fresh at home sidesteps the question. |
| Sorbonne Paris Nord University · 112,395 French adults · 2026 |
|
|
| Short back-road wiring may cover for a shrinking brain |
| Two brains can shrink alike. They may not work alike. Scientists at the University of Southern California scanned 459 adults over 60 across India. Most lived in villages, and more than half had little schooling. The team looked at the short wiring just under the brain’s gray outer layer. Where that wiring was healthier, gray matter loss did less harm to thinking. Language held up best. Think of back roads that keep a town moving when the highway narrows. It was one scan at one time, so cause is still open. |
| University of Southern California · 459 adults in India · September 2026 |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Most brain-drug news is about infusions. This week’s three take other forms. One is a new daily pill. One is a heart pill millions already swallow. And one is living cells, placed straight into a damaged brain. Each shape brings its own hurdles, so watch them side by side. |
|
| Cutting the stress hormone made inside brain cells |
| Cortisol is your main stress hormone. Too much of it inside the brain may speed memory loss. Actinogen’s pill, Xanamem (emestedastat), blocks an enzyme that makes cortisol inside brain cells. The body’s normal supply is left alone. An earlier mid-stage trial missed overall. But people with a high tangle-protein marker in their blood seemed to decline less. So the new trial, XanaMIA, took only that group: 247 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. The last patient finished on September 22. |
| Actinogen Medical · Phase 2b/3 · results due November 2026 |
|
|
| Stopping clots may also slow memory loss |
| Many people with Alzheimer’s also have atrial fibrillation. That is an uneven heartbeat that can send clots to the brain. Maria Eriksdotter and Nanbo Zhu at Karolinska Institutet studied 7,308 Swedes with both. Some took the newer blood thinners, the pills that replaced warfarin for many people. They lost about 0.2 fewer points a year on a standard thinking test than people on warfarin or on nothing. That gap is small, but it adds up. They also had fewer strokes and deaths. Only a trial can prove the pill caused it. |
| Karolinska Institutet · records study · published August 2026 |
|
|
| Replacing brain cells lost to a stroke |
| A stroke kills brain cells for good. A team at the University of Zurich tried to replace them. Christian Tackenberg and Rebecca Weber grew young human brain cells from adult cells turned back in time. They placed them in mice one week after a stroke. Most became working neurons and wired in. New blood vessels grew and swelling eased. The mice walked normally again. The work first appeared last year and returned to the news this week. Human trials come next, following stem-cell trials already running for Parkinson’s in Japan. |
| University of Zurich · animal study · human trials being planned |
|
|
