THURSDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- A group of researchers has described hourly changes in a protein in the brain that is thought to play a key role in Alzheimer's disease.

In a 2005 study, the protein, known as amyloid beta, was directly linked to brain cell communication in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. When brain cell communication increased, so did amyloid beta. When there was reduced communication, amyloid beta decreased.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Magnesium sulfate, given to mothers at risk of preterm delivery, cut the rate of cerebral palsy in their babies by nearly half, a new study found.

"If deemed to be at high or immediate risk of delivery prior to 32 weeks, women and their doctors should consider using magnesium sulfate to prevent their child from having cerebral palsy," said study lead author Dr. Dwight J. Rouse, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The findings are published in the Aug. 28 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The blood pressure drug telmisartan does not lower the rate of stroke, cardiovascular events or diabetes better than a placebo in patients who have had a stroke, a new study finds.

Telmisartan is an angiotensin II receptor blocker, which works by blocking the action of chemicals that constrict the blood vessels enabling the blood to flow more smoothly, thus lowering blood pressure.

(HealthDay News) -- Workouts for your mind are as important as they are for your body, especially as you get older.

Here are suggestions on how to keep your mind sharp, courtesy of the Cleveland Clinic:

* Challenge yourself with activities. Try a crossword puzzle, take a class, or build something.
* Create to-do lists to help you remember appointments and activities.
* When learning something new, make sure you are not distracted. Give it your full attention, and use all of your senses to become familiar with it.

TUESDAY, Aug. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Imagine you're in a foreign country where learning the language is incredibly hard, if not impossible.

No one understands what you're saying. You can't comprehend a word. The best you can do is point and gesture, and hope the other person understands what you're trying to get across.

You're now in a position to better understand what a person suffering from aphasia goes through on a daily basis. Caused by injury to the brain, often due to stroke, aphasia affects the production or comprehension of speech, be it verbal or written.

Ohio State Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones died this week in Cleveland from a brain aneurtsm that ruptured while she was driving. She was taken to the Cleveland Clinic and was unable to recover. She was only 58 years old.

Brain aneurysms are little balloon type 'pockets' that are found in the arteries. Many are in the brain but can also be found around the heart or in the legs or other areas of the body.

FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A new method of identifying protein structures related to Alzheimer's disease has been developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The research team says its computer-based technique could help in the development of drugs that could prevent the formation of such structures.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by two kinds of proteins (amyloid and tau) that accumulate in the brain. In a study published in the Aug. 22 issue of PLoS Computational Biology, the MIT team focused on tau.

THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Dawn Marie Perkins wasn't even seven months pregnant with her twin boys when she knew something had gone terribly wrong.

After numerous tests and evaluations, Perkins quickly learned that strokes aren't something that just happens in the elderly; they can even strike an infant still in the womb.

THURSDAY, Aug. 21 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. researchers have identified 170 more proteins to add to the 91 already known to be associated with programmed cell death, or apoptosis.

They also uncovered new information about how these proteins may function. The findings may help in the development of new drug treatments for stroke and a number of diseases, the researchers said.

TUESDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Yearly changes in a person's performance on cognitive testing may be associated with dementia, new research suggests.

Using a newly developed model to assess the effect of variations in a person's score from year to year, researchers found that just a one point change in variability on cognitive test scores could indicate as much as a fourfold increase in the risk of developing dementia.