“This is not going to be your typical story about Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran. “…You get to come to my office and watch me spit in a tube.”

And so began Moran’s personal tale of his quest to discover whether Alzheimer’s disease might one day control his life, just as it had his mother’s not that many years ago.

By spitting into a special tube and shipping his saliva sample to Navigenics, Moran was able to experience first-hand one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine – the ability to size up his genetic code and learn his personal genetic risk for a disease he has long abhorred.

“My moment of truth,” he told the cameras, as he prepared to get the results of his Navigenics genetic test. “I wanted to face my fears...”

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From the way some people talk about alcohol, you might think it’s almost a cure-all, capable of preventing heart attacks and strokes while reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and macular degeneration.

Others, however, will tell you alcohol is bad for your body and brain, causing addiction, cirrhosis of the liver and abnormal heart rhythms while raising the risk of breast cancer.

So who is right? Well, both sides, actually.

A growing body of research suggests that, when consumed in moderation, alcohol can have many significant health benefits.

The evidence purporting that alcohol may be associated with a reduction in heart disease – or at least a reduction in deaths from heart disease – has garnered the most attention.

One recent study of former teetotalers found that those who took up drinking wine in middle age experienced a 38 percent reduction in heart attacks and stroke over four years.

“The findings suggest that, for carefully selected individuals, a ‘heart healthy diet’ may include limited alcohol consumption, even among individuals who have not included alcohol previously,” the study’s authors wrote.

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As far as vitamins go, the popular belief has been that B – or B12, specifically – is for brain. Memory, cognition and brain size have all appeared to benefit from the dietary supplement.

A new study suggests, however, that vitamin B12 doesn’t slow cognitive decline in patients already diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Symptoms did not improve in 202 patients put on high doses of the vitamin.

But don’t throw away your bottle of B vitamins just yet.

While the new study raises questions about the vitamin’s ability to treat Alzheimer’s disease, there is still a growing body of evidence indicating that it may be useful in preventing it. A number of clinical trials have determined that sufficient levels of vitamin B12 may be needed to keep the brain from shrinking and mental cognition from declining. So, it is more important than ever to make sure you’re getting enough of this nutrient.

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In one of the more famous public service announcements ever to hit American television, a man cracks open an egg, drops it into a hot frying pan and says “This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” In another memorable segment, actress Rachael Leigh Cook smashes an egg – and the entire kitchen – with a skillet to illustrate what happens to the brain on heroin.

But what happens to the brain after many years of smoking? New research indicates the picture is no less disturbing. Smoking side effects go beyond the heart and the lungs; they go to the very core of your being—your mind.

In a study of more than 5,000 civil servants living in London, researchers determined that smoking is associated with an increased risk of poor memory. Smoking in middle age was linked not only to a significant memory deficit, but also to a decline in reasoning ability.

The concern, however, isn’t just that smokers might forget where they put their keys or glasses. The researchers noted that cognitive impairment is often a precursor to dementia.

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Are you at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease? It appears your nose may know.

In a growing body of research, an inability to identify common scents has been associated with the development of mild cognitive impairment – a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. Older adults who have difficulty identifying odors such as lemon or cinnamon are more likely to have problems with thinking, learning and memory, according to one such study by Chicago researchers.

That may sound a bit far-fetched. But scientists know that protein deposits called tangles begin to appear in a region of the brain responsible for smell before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease manifest themselves. An inability to identify some scents has been linked to other neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, and scientists are still attempting to understand why this is.

The findings are raising hopes that doctors may one day be able to administer a sort of “scratch ‘n sniff” test to gauge olfactory abilities as part of determining a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

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An apple a day isn’t enough anymore. Now you also need to think fish or flaxseed in your diet to help keep the doctor away. That is why Navigenics has new recommendations to encourage our members to be sure they get enough omega-3 fatty acids in their diet.

Omega-3 fatty acids aren’t snake oil, promising to cure all ills; rather, they are oils from fish or certain nuts and plants, and researchers have found strong evidence that they have many potential health benefits.

These polyunsaturated fatty acids are found primarily in fish and fish oils, but also in some plant-based oils, such as canola oil or flaxseed oil, and certain leafy green vegetables, including spinach, kale, broccoli and seaweed.  They are essential to human health, but cannot be made by the body. That is why it is so important for people to make sure they get sufficient amounts of them through diet or supplements—and to know how much they need.

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In this era of fast-moving genome research, it seems that new genes are discovered every month for common diseases like Crohn’s disease, prostate cancer, or type 2 diabetes. However, Alzheimer’s disease has stubbornly resisted giving up any more secrets to researchers – until now.

For 15 years, only one gene, APOE, has been unambiguously associated with Alzheimer’s disease, yet scientists knew that the risk variant of APOE explained only a small amount of the genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.  Now, a new study by an international team of researchers has revealed a mutation, in a newly discovered gene, that can double the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers cracked this piece of Alzheimer’s code by turning to bioinformatics. They used the power of sophisticated math and computing to screen for genes that are expressed in certain regions of the brain and found on chromosome regions that had previously been suspected in Alzheimer’s.

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