A recent research has found that an easy and simple five-minute neck examination can forecast the potential arrival of dementia 10 Years before symptoms occur. Expertise hopes that it could become a part of schedule screening for people in middle-age and who are at risk of developing the disease.
The research conducted by scientists from the UCL (University College London), involved checking the strength of the pulse traveling toward the brain. When the heart beats, the physical pulse it produces goes to various parts of the body by various levels of intensity. Scientists report that healthy and elastic vessels around the heart generally cushion each heartbeat, reducing its energy and consequently preventing it from getting in touch with delicate blood vessels in another place in the body. Though, factors like high blood pressure and aging could cause the stiffening of these vessels and might reduce their protective effect. Therefore, an increasingly active pulse can go deep into the delicate vessels that supply the brain. Ultimately, this can cause injury to the small vessels of the brain, structural modifications in the blood vessel network of the brain and small bleeds known as mini-strokes, which could all add to the expansion of dementia. Professor Metin Avkiran—Associate Medical Director of the BHF (British Heart Foundation)—said, “The beating heart is what keeps us breathing, but we also require healthy blood vessels to regulate a normal blood supply to all body organs, counting the brain.”
Recently, the UCL was also in news for collaborating with Google to launch a $7.2 Million (£5.5 Million) Prosperity Partnership. This partnership plans to tie together the revolutionary power of quantum computers for functions in simulation and modeling. The initiative is funded by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). This collaboration is between the Google Quantum AI Lab, the UCL Quantum Science and Technology Institute, and the University of Bristol Quantum Information Institute. It also incorporates the U.K. startup companies such as PhaseCraft and GTN.