(September 21, 2009 - Insidermedicine)

From the UK - According to the 2009 World Alzheimer Report released by Alzheimer's Disease International, Alzheimer's disease is steadily on the rise. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 150 countries around the world. They found that  35.6 million people will suffer from dementia by 2010, a number that represents a 10% increase in the last 5 years.

From the Netherlands - Human error is the main cause of mistakes made in the emergency department, according to a report published in the journal BMC Medicine. Dutch researchers studied the unintended events that occurred in 10 different emergency departments, analyzing the root cause of every error. 60% of root causes were human, while 25% were organizational and only 11% were technical. 45% of adverse events, however, merely resulted in inconvenience for the patient.

And finally, from Alabama - According to a report published in the journal Neurology, people 45 and older who have high blood pressure may be at increased risk of having memory problems. Researchers studied almost 20, 000 people aged 45 and older; 7% of whom had memory problems.  They found that, within this 7%, nearly 50% of patients were on medication for high blood pressure.