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Urine sample test: new way to detect and screen for early stages of Alzheimer’s disease

<p>When it comes to <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/science/alzheimers-peer-review/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alzheimer’s disease</a>, an early diagnosis – one made well before signs of irreversible dementia are apparent – is key to providing effective intervention and treatment. Now early detection might be as simple as a urine test, allowing for wide-scale and early screening across large populations of the elderly.</p> <p>A collaboration of researchers in China investigated urine samples for biomarkers from a large group of patients with varying severity of Alzheimer’s disease, comparing them with healthy controls.</p> <p>A compound known as <a href="https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/molecule-of-the-week/archive/f/formic-acid.html?cid=home_motw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">formic acid</a> (which is also produced by some ant and bee species) was a particularly sensitive marker for cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Significant increases in urinary formic acid levels were found in all samples from Alzheimer’s sufferers (including those with only early-stage subjective cognitive decline) as compared with those from the healthy controls.</p> <p>“Alzheimer’s disease is a continuous and concealed chronic disease, meaning that it can develop and last for many years before obvious cognitive impairment emerges,” say the authors. “The early stages of the disease occur before the irreversible dementia stage, and this is the golden window for intervention and treatment.”</p> <p>When blood samples of the participants were analysed for Alzheimer’s biomarkers in combination with the urinary formic acid level, the researchers were able to predict to what stage of the disease the patient had progressed. Their report is in <em><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.1046066/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frontiers in Ageing</a></em>.</p> <p>Other methods currently used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, such as positron emission tomography brain scans, <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/medicine/alzheimers-blood-test-developed/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invasive blood draws</a> and lumbar punctures, tend to be costly and invasive. Although other urinary biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease have been found, none have been able to detect the disease at its earliest stages.</p> <p>The links between urinary formic acid and Alzheimer’s disease are still not fully understood, but this research is an important step towards developing tools to diagnose and treat this debilitating condition amongst a vulnerable group in society.</p> <p>“Urinary formic acid showed an excellent sensitivity for early Alzheimer’s screening,” said the authors. “The detection of urine biomarkers of Alzheimer’s is convenient and cost-effective, and it should be performed during routine physical examinations of the elderly.”</p> <p><!-- Start of tracking content syndication. Please do not remove this section as it allows us to keep track of republished articles --></p> <p><img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=227116&amp;title=Urine+sample+test%3A+new+way+to+detect+and+screen+for+early+stages+of+Alzheimer%E2%80%99s+disease" width="1" height="1" data-spai-target="src" data-spai-orig="" data-spai-exclude="nocdn" /></p> <p><!-- End of tracking content syndication --></p> <div id="contributors"> <p><em><a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/urine-new-way-detect-alzheimers-disease/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on Cosmos Magazine and was written by Clare Kenyon. </em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p> </div>

Mind

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Woolworths giving away free groceries

<p>Woolworths is calling for thousands of shoppers to sign up to a new online testing club to receive free groceries.</p> <p>Woolworths is launching <a href="https://bunch.woolworths.com.au/home?gclid=CjwKEAjwu4_JBRDpgs2RwsCbt1MSJABOY8anPK6fPLbR4zjDYtZ3eVvrk-CxQpzFM3HEJqQO5cBJSxoCAKzw_wcB" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>The Bunch</strong></span></a>, an online space where members provide “free and unfiltered” reviews of the products.</p> <p>The Bunch had a pilot late last year which involved over 4000 people. Some customers who have joined the pilot program have save more than $100 in a few months by sampling products including soups, ice cream, crackers, tomatoes and lamb shanks.</p> <p>Senior Own Brand manager at Woolworths Gemma Howells explained that anyone who has a Woolworths Rewards card is eligible to sign up.</p> <p>The next round of recruitment for the program will take place in the last week of June. If a member has been selected to join, they will receive an email notifying them once samples become available.</p> <p>The sample is claimed and then is automatically loaded onto the associated Rewards card. The next time the customer purchases the item during their shop, they can scan their rewards card and the product price will be deducted from the total.</p> <p>Posting reviews on The Brunch is voluntary but the more active the customers are, the more free samples they will receive.</p> <p>“There’s technically a gamification system, with different Bunch levels,” Gemma said.</p> <p>“The more you sample and review, the more people interact with you and like what you’re doing, the higher you go. At the highest level people will get a sample every other week, then on top of that are first-come, first-served samples.”</p> <p>“What we’ve seen is our most active users are getting an opportunity to sample each week. It could be anything. The whole point is variety.”</p> <p>The concept is similar to Aldi’s exclusive Tester’s Club which only invites 100 members each year.</p> <p>The feedback reviewers on the site provide will be considered during product development.</p> <p>Setting up this community is a great way for customers to shape the future of Woolworths Own Brand ranges,” Ms Howells said.</p> <p>“They can experience some of our new and existing range of products and provide us comprehensive feedback on how we’re doing. If they like it, we know that we are on the right track, however if they don’t, we can immediately capture, take on board the feedback and work with our product development teams to review the products.”</p> <p>“Instead of just receiving bite-size samples in store, we’re giving customers the opportunity to try full-sized portions for free in their own homes. In exchange, we want them to cook, experiment and test them with their family and friends, then decide what they think of them and share their honest ratings and reviews on The Bunch.”</p>

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