B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 747,000 Canadians currently live with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, but a new study suggests age-related memory loss could be reversed with a 20-minute non-invasive treatment.
Researchers from Boston University outlined their findings in a paper published in Nature Neuroscience last week. Their treatment involves a wearable cap equipped with electrodes that sends electrical signals into the brain, and researchers say this could help improve memory function.
"An increasingly older population leads to additional personal, social, healthcare and economic costs. A factor greatly contributing to these costs is the impairment in basic memory systems essential for activities of everyday life, such as making financial decisions or understanding language," lead researcher Robert Reinhart said in a news release published Monday.
In the study, patients received electrical brain stimulation for 20 minutes for four consecutive days. Each day, the patients were given a list of 20 words and were asked to memorize and immediately recite the words.
Two different treatment methods were tested: one targeting short-term memory with low-frequency stimulation and another for improving long-term memory with high-frequency stimulation in the brain's prefrontal cortex. Both methods were tested against a placebo in a randomized double-blind trial.
The researchers found that after three or four days of applying low-frequency electrical signals to the brain, patients exhibited better short-term memory, and the improvements remained a month later.
Sending high-frequency signals into the brain improved long-term memory after Day 2, as well as after a month. The researchers also found that individuals that had lower cognitive function had larger and longer-lasting memory improvement as a result of the treatment.
"Clinically, this is important because there are people with only short-term memory problems and others with only long-term memory problems. So, having tools in hand that can address each of these memory systems is of great value," Reinhart said.
In a 2019 study led by Reinhart's team, the researchers had applied the electrode treatment for one 25-minute session, but patients only exhibited memory benefits for less than an hour before the improvements vanished. However, Reinhart's treatment now applies electrical stimulation for multiple days.
"In this new study, we used multiple, consecutive days of stimulation for 20 minutes to cause long-lasting memory improvements that lasted one month. Previously, the effects lasted only 50 minutes," Reinhart said.
Currently, Reinhart notes that the existing treatment options for age-related impaired cognition produce mixed results and come with several risks and side effects.
"For those reasons, there’s an urgent need to develop innovative therapeutic interventions that can provide rapid and sustainable improvements with minimal side effects," he said.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
The Canadian Transportation Agency has hit a record high of more than 71,000 complaints in a backlog. The quasi-judicial regulator and tribunal tasked with settling disputes between customers and the airlines says the backlog is growing because the number of incoming complaints keeps increasing.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.