Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The blood test that could spot Alzheimer's early

Episode Date: August 3, 2024

A new blood test for Alzheimer's appears to be able to spot the disease up to ten years before symptoms develop. It's hoped it could lead to earlier treatment and slow progression of the disease, giving patients better quality of life for longer. Also: The 50-year-old X Games champion, Andy MacDonald, who's aiming to outdo the teenagers in Olympic skateboarding. How Platypus Rescue HQ is hoping to help the animals make more babies, called puggles. Why a travel blogger in Germany woke up to dozens of messages from students in China. And, in a country famous for its food, what's on the menu for Olympic and Paralympic athletes?Our weekly collection of happy stories and positive news from around the world.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC podcasts. This is The Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in this edition, uploaded on Saturday the 3rd of August, a new blood test that could revolutionise the diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

It will affect one in five women and one in 10 men. And it's a disease which is fairly difficult to recognise just based on clinical symptoms. It's hoped it will lead to earlier treatment. How Platypus Rescue HQ hopes to help the animals have more babies or puggles. Unfortunately for the poor platypus, their population in the wild is in decline. We also have very few platypuses in zoo settings and they're such an iconic species. And... Pretty surreal. I don't think that a lot of people really grasp how lucky I am. Just like what a long shot it was from the beginning.

The 50-year-old Olympic skateboarder taking on the teenagers, also in this podcast. Both the emails were strange because they both mentioned we loved your story and it was a very good question for our exam. How one travel blogger found fame in China and the seagull banned from a shop after a six year crime spree. We start with a medical discovery which it's hoped could help the millions of people around the world who develop Alzheimer's disease every year. At the moment, it can only be confirmed by expensive brain scans, which can be hard to interpret, or a lumbar puncture, sticking a needle into a person's

spine. But early results suggest a blood test can diagnose the disease with greater accuracy than scans. And it can detect the onset of Alzheimer's five to ten years before symptoms start, or even 20 years for some people with genetic mutations, which is crucial given current treatments can only slow the disease, not cure it. Sebastian Poundquist is an associate professor at Lund University and a consultant neurologist at Skåne University Hospital in Sweden. He worked on the study, led by Oskar Hansson, and spoke to the Happy Pods' Holly Gipps. The blood test for Alzheimer's disease, it's very important because Alzheimer's disease, it's a very common disease. It will affect one in five women and one in ten men.

So it's common and it's very devastating for the patient, for those living around the patient and for the healthcare system. It's actually the world's most expensive disease. And it's a disease which is fairly difficult to recognise just based on clinical symptoms. So a blood test has the potential possibility to really revolutionise the diagnostic workup of Alzheimer's disease. What was your reaction when you realised you'd found a test that works so well? I mean, that was amazing. And actually, the journey started in 2019 and 2020, when we had our first major publication on this showing that this specific blood test seemed to be very accurate. But back then, we only showed it on specific research populations that were quite selected. And we had no idea how it would actually work in clinical practice.

That's, I would say, the major step forward. Tell us what a difference this could make in terms of an earlier diagnosis and therefore treatment of Alzheimer's. One thing it can help is to rule out Alzheimer's disease. Early on, help maybe the primary care physician realise that this is not Alzheimer's disease. I need to focus and try to identify other causes of the memory impairment. Maybe it's depression, maybe some more benign condition, and that can be really helpful. The other alternative is if it's positive and could support an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. That could help the physician and the patient really understand what's going on,

provide the right care, the right treatment. In the new era of disease-modifying treatments, it can help the patient start treatment earlier and maybe have a better disease modifying effect. And how soon could the blood test be rolled out? What we need in place first is proper guidelines on whom to test and what to do with the test results. Those guidelines are pretty much in place in specialist care in memory clinics, but the challenge is primary care. And the problem is that most primary care physicians are not used to working with Alzheimer's biomarkers. There we need

education and clear guidelines. Why is it so important for patients and their quality of life to get an earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's? Most patients want to know. You notice that you're not working properly. The memory is not functioning the way it used to. Most people just want to know what is this. The next step is that you could initiate symptomatic treatment that are currently available, provide information about the disease, set up correct care and support in their home so they can function better. And as we've seen in many countries where there are now these new anti-amyloid treatment that are disease modifying and slow the progression with about 30 to 40 percent, that could also be initiated to slow down the progress.

How does it feel to know that you could make such a difference to so many people and their families? I mean, of course, this is a great first step. And it's really a team effort. And we're all very happy about this. The first but promising step. This is what we've been working for, for many, many years. So it's happy to see that it's finally coming through like this. That was Sebastian Palmquist talking to Holly Gibbs. Now, imagine waking up to discover you'd become famous among teenagers thousands of kilometres away from where you live. Well, that's what happened to a travel blogger who grew up in India and is now based in Germany, after one of his stories was included in China's university entrance exam. Sophie Williams has been finding out more. So some crazy news. I just found out recently that a blog post I wrote 10 years ago

has gone viral after being featured in the world's toughest college entrance exam called Gaokao. That's Kash Bhattacharya, who runs his own travel website. A few weeks ago, he logged onto his laptop to find a couple of peculiar emails. Both the emails were strange because they both mentioned that we loved your story and it was a very good question for our exam. The next few days, I was just looking at my website traffic. In the morning, I suddenly start seeing this huge peak of visitors and I start getting more messages from students in China. I asked one of the students and she said,

oh, don't you know you've been featured in Gaokao? The Gaokao is a big event in China. Parents line the streets to wish their children well as they head to school to take the exam. This year, just under 13 million students took the Gaokao in order to gain access to university. Cash's blog post used in the exam told the story of how he decided to get a taxi to the bus station in Vienna when he thought he might miss his coach to Prague. Gunther was his taxi driver and got him there in a speedy time. But then Cash realised he didn't

have any money on him. And I could see in the distance the bus to Prague was about to leave, everybody was about to get in the coach. And then I turned towards Gunther in the rain, it was like a scene out of a Hollywood love story. I'm looking at him and I'm saying, Gunter, we've only just met, but I have a big thing to ask you. I'm going to come back to Vienna in four days. Is it OK for me to give you the cash then? And that was the task for the students. They had to complete the story based on what they thought happened next.

And then they picked up their phones and posted written comments to let Cash know. Your story is in the Chinese college entrance examination. You are a famous storyteller in China. Your experience is so touching. I wish the best for you. I never expected one day I would read a story about a person thousands of kilometers away from me on my exam paper. However, what saddens me is that I didn't write well about your story.

But what actually did happen? Two days later, I arrived back in Vienna and told him to give me a lift to my hostel and give him the money. And we had a cheeky beer and I took a little selfie. And does Gunther know he's famous? Unfortunately, I exchanged phone numbers with Gunter, but that phone got stolen a few months later. Coincidentally, I'm going back to Vienna in August and I've tried reaching out through a few forums and I have not had any success so far. So if anybody's in Vienna listening to this or knows a taxi driver called Gunter, please drop me a line.

I'd love to meet him. That was Kash Bhattacharya ending that report from Sophie Williams. Well, if you've ever been helped out by a kind stranger like Kash or even found yourself the subject of a school exam, do get in touch. Skateboarding has something of a reputation the world over as a young person's sport and saw some of the youngest medalists when it debuted at the Tokyo Olympics. But at the Paris Games, it will see one of the oldest athletes from any event. Andy McDonald, who's 50 and originally from Massachusetts in the US, says his selection to represent Team GB in the park event shows age really is just a number.

He holds the record for the most skateboarding medals at the X Games, the pinnacle championships of extreme sports. He's been named world champion skateboarder nine times and he invented tricks that will feature at the Olympics. So how does it feel to be competing in Paris? He's been speaking to Nishat Lada. Pretty surreal. I don't think that a lot of people really grasp how lucky I am. Just like what a long shot it was from the beginning. I had a conversation with my wife like, hey, you know, my dad's British, so I could

get a British passport and I could go out for the British national team, like two and a half years ago. And if I happen to make the team, then they'll fund my journey toward the Olympics, going to all the qualification competitions all around the world, you know, which would be super cool and a new experience and a learning experience for me, because Olympic Park skateboarding is a discipline that I'm not known for. I'm known for halfpipe skating, and it's on bigger ramps. And it was like learning a new discipline for the Olympics. You know, when you look at the stats for the Great Britain team, and they have Sky Brown and Loda Tamblyn, you know, teenage ages. And then you see Andy McDonald, 50. Does it feel strange to be amongst two teenagers who are essentially the same age as your child,

your children? It doesn't feel strange because that's what I've been doing. You know, I never stopped skateboarding. So generally when I'm out on the Olympic tour, my peers, the guys that I came up and competed with for years on the pro tour are generally the coaches. And I wasn't ready for that yet. I just was like, maybe I can still compete with the kids. Really. That's I think been beneficial to the British team in me being able to share some of that experience and knowledge of having done this for 35 years. Certainly as far as nerding out, as far as like, oh, you know who invented that trick? I did. And then there's as much resource and motivation for me because I go down, it takes me a lot longer

to heal and get back up than they do. And they're just like, come on, let's go. And like, it's motivating to me. I'll see one of my teammates go down and just pop back up and like get right. And I was like, if I felt that hard, I would be out for two weeks, you know? But they're just up there like, let's go. And it just makes me want to do it as well. What stands out for you in the lead up to these games

in what you've achieved already? Because there is so much. Yeah, it's been a journey. I think that in a way it's fitting because when I started out as a professional skateboarder, I used to get made fun of because I took skateboarding serious. Like it was a sport to me. And I don't party and I don't drink and I don't have tattoos. And I was like this clean cut image that did not fit in the world of course, skateboarding, especially in the 80s, 90s skateboard culture.

It was about that anti-hero, anti-establishment image that was marketable. And I did not fit that. I was the, as Sports Illustrated put it, the mother approved skateboarder. To me, skateboarding taught me that anybody can skateboard. Anybody can from all walks of life, any socioeconomic backgrounds can be a part of skateboarding. It knows no bounds. And I hate the gym. I don't, but I'll skate for five, eight hours a day if I can, you know, just skateboarding was it for me. And here I am as far as that transition from skateboarding as this kind of outlaw, anti-establishment activity to the sport of skateboarding in the Olympics. I've always supported it and somehow I've managed to do it this late in my career. And you can hear the full interview and those with other Olympians on Sports Hour

wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Coming up in this podcast, we'll hear what's on the menu for the athletes in the Olympic Village. Plasma is quite the symbol of Paris. In this one, you have a bit of artichoke puree, a poached egg, a bit of truffle and a bit of cheese. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News,

AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. Around the world, zoos can play a vital role in protecting the future of threatened or endangered animals. As we heard last week, rhinos bred in captivity are even being used to help their wild

cousins get pregnant with IVF. But what about zoo animals that don't feel in the mood to make babies? Well, since 1943, only 23 platypus babies, or puggles, have been born in captivity. Now, though, researchers based at Platypus Rescue HQ, part of Taronga Western Plain Zoo in Dubbo, Australia, are hoping to unlock the secrets of getting these duck-billed creatures to breed. Rebecca Woods spoke to Taronga's Wildlife Conservation Officer, Dr Phoebe Marr, and started with the important question, what's the plural of platypus? It's actually platypuses. So you can use platypus as a plural, but the scientists that we work with often use platypuses, but it's definitely not platypi.

Platypuses are very strange creatures. If you haven't seen one, they have the bill of a duck and they have the body of a small beaver-style mammal, but they're actually a monotreme. So in Australia we have two monotremes, the echidna and the platypus. So they're egg-laying mammals, which makes them weird in itself, but they also have a range of quirky features such as electroreceptors in their bill. They also glow green under UV light. They have sort of a multi-tool core or front claws where they can either turn them into claws for

digging or they can flip them up and have them as paddles for swimming so like an aquatic wolverine so they're absolutely incredible animals and we just don't know enough about them. And you mentioned there that they lay eggs and that's quite unusual for mammals. Does that pose a challenge in the breeding process in zoos and the wild? Oh it absolutely is a challenge so in fact it's the eggs that we're finding it's the point that the reproduction often fails so the platypus are quite good at getting together often the females are quite good at getting together. Often the females are quite good at producing the egg, making her burrow system. But we find that what we're doing, particularly in a zoo setting, is not getting those burrow conditions right, because it seems the egg often fails at that stage. We mentioned there the eggs. Is there anything else? I know you're trying to find out,

but anything else that it's known about why they don't breed so well in captivity no we don't know if you speak with a lot of the keepers they say it seems quite individual so if they find a pair that work well together they will produce offspring every year but it's hard to find a compatible pair so there's definitely something about mate choice there as well that we don't quite understand i'm imagining a nice meal and romantic lighting maybe wouldn't help out. What is it that you guys are going to be doing? Yeah, no, we're not rolling out the panda, you know, mood music that they do overseas. We're building this facility that allows choice. We are giving them a huge space, four different streams or with waterfalls, two separate earth banks, artificial rest box enclosures, as well as multiple tunnel systems. It's a world first conservation facility for platypus.

Giving them this choice of areas to make their burrows, but also swim, means that they can tell us what they prefer and then we can see what conditions result in reproductive success. Why is it so important to solve this mystery? Well unfortunately for the poor platypus their population in the wild is in decline. We also have very few platypuses in zoo settings around Australia and they're such an iconic species. They really are the flagship for river health in Australia. They also are emblem species here at Taronga. So it's really important for us to get this right. I didn't know until today that a baby platypus is called a puggle. Is that right? So it's very interesting, this story. So Taronga, we have been calling baby platypus puggles forever. And a baby echidna is definitely a puggle.

And it seems we have adopted baby platypus as a puggle. But in fact, there is no agreed upon baby name for platypus yet. So a couple of the options are out there include a platypup and a nestling, a very boring juvenile platypus, and my favourite, which is indeed the puggle. And so we have spoken to lots of people and we would love to have Puggle as the official name for a baby platypus. Dr Phoebe Marr talking to Rebecca Wood. As we love an animal story here on the Happy Pod, we couldn't resist telling you about a seagull who's been banned from a shop for stealing. CCTV footage from the store in Dorset in south-west England shows the bird, nicknamed Stephen Seagull, get it?

Strolling through the door, having a quick look around and then grabbing a packet of crisps or potato chips from a bottom shelf. There he goes. Stephen, who's said to have been on a six-year stealing spree, then dashes outside and hurries off to a safe distance before tucking into his treats. The shop manager, Stuart Harmer, says the bird will eat whatever crisps he can get his beak on. He'll just go for the nearest crisp that he can, peck it open and eat it out in front of the shop. Normally it's a beef flavour that we have from a certain supplier, but we've tried putting different crisps there that are spicier to try and ward him off. He doesn't care.

I've got to explain it to my peers why I've got stock missing. And when I tell them it's because of a seagull stealing it, they think I'm joking. I mean, he's had about 30 to 40 packets of crisps over the last couple of weeks. It's very strange. And if you've got any tales of bizarre

animal behaviour you think will make everyone smile, send us an email or a voice note. globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk. If you're blind or partially sighted, doing your hair can be a huge challenge. But now one of Britain's top hairstylists is running workshops to help visually impaired women feel more confident about their appearance. Emma Tracy from the BBC Access All podcast went to a course in London run by Anna Cofone, who's worked with pop stars Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey. If you're blind or visually impaired, doing your hair can be a real pain. I'm brushing my hair right now, but it's hard to be sure that you're looking good just through touch.

It's really important to me to feel confident about how I look when I go out. And there's not always someone there to tell me that my hair looks right or that all the frizzy bits have been tamed. So I'm going along to a specialist workshop to pick up some tips, which I hope will help me. Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone. This is the hair and care workshop, which helps blind and visually impaired women look after their hair. I find that since I've become visually impaired, I do not pay as much attention to my hair as I should. And also find it very difficult to find the right kind of products. The participants tell me they learn all sorts of tricks and techniques.

I've just never seen people brush their hair, so I assumed you just always brush down. But so much of it is to do with where you position the brush, like from touch. It can be as simple as learning how often you should wash your hair and look after your hair. So it's really helped me in all areas, really. Coming to this workshop, I've got so many more options

that I didn't know I had before. Helping me with my hair is the woman behind the workshop, Annika Fohn. If you can get both of your hands twisting the hair. At the same time? Yeah. She styled hair for stars like Dua Lipa... I look like all you need.

..and Lana Del Rey. Ana tells me she was inspired to do this by her father who was blind. He taught me from a very, very young age just how important self-care was to him, how it made him feel confident and how it also enabled him to feel empowered. She's also trying to get the beauty industry to make products that are more accessible. We've seen brands who have had raised textures on their bottles so that a person can differentiate from a shampoo bottle to a conditioner, but there's still a really long way to go. After one session at the hair and care workshop,

I'm feeling a lot better about my hair. It feels lovely. It feels really bouncy. And the best thing is I think I could do it myself. I know it suits me and I feel more confident about it. Hooray! And you can hear more on Access All wherever you get your podcasts. Back now to the Olympics, and with France boasting a reputation the world over for its gourmet food, we've been wondering what's on the menu. The crowds of athletes hungry from training and

competitions have been eating at the world's largest restaurant. Isabella Jewell has been finding out more. Forget feeding the 500, how about the 15,000? Catering in Paris this summer can only be described as a challenge of Olympic proportions. Each day, the athletes in the Olympic and Paralympic village are expected to munch through up to 40,000 meals. Making the Games greener was a key element of the Paris 2024 bid and it's also at the centre of the food strategy. A third of the athletes meals and two-thirds of those on offer to the public will be vegetarian and organic and local produce feature heavily. Philipp Wurtz is the food and beverage manager. It is a rich variety that will be plant-based, that will be made available for the general public to try.

And hopefully, fingers crossed, actually we are quite convinced about this, they will love it. And they will ask future event organisers to propose more vegetarian food over than what has been proposed in the past. Also on the menu are some French classics with a twist. The caterers roped in renowned chefs to create some rather special dishes. Amandine Chagnon is one of them. I wanted the recipe that I suggested to be quite representative of the French terroir and in the meantime I wanted the athletes to enjoy it. So I wanted to do recipes which are both very rich, very gourmand, you know, very mouth-watering and in the meantime quite easy to understand. So I think the plasma is quite the symbol of Paris. In this one you have a bit of artichoke puree, a poached egg,

a bit of truffle and a bit of cheese. So it's both vegetarian and still very mouth-watering. As well as pimped-up pastries, the menu features freshly baked bread and garlic cheeses. The athletes are expected to eat 2,000 baguettes a day, the most quintessential of French carbs. And they won't just be eating the baguettes. Tony Doré is a baker in the Olympic restaurant. From 11 to 11.3030 we'll be doing some activities

and allowing the athletes to make their own baguettes by hand with me so I can pass on all my expertise as a baker to them so that they can make their own baguettes, bake them and take them home to enjoy and have the pride of having made a good French baguette. The caterers are trying to offer a diverse range of flavours to suit all tastes. They've picked four cuisines to plan the meals around. French, Asian, African and Caribbean and international food. For many athletes the Olympic canteen has been a place of culinary discovery. Norwegian swimmer Henrik Kristiansen has documented his newfound love of chocolate

muffins on TikTok. And Team USA rugby player Marcus Tapuola has developed a penchant for northern French pancakes. The food is good. There's a lot of variety in there. So that's kind of good in a sense. I've been eating crepes every day. So that's kind of been my go-to. So if you fancy eating like an Olympian, shakshuka, a North African dish of eggs baked in spiced tomato sauce, and a Middle Eastern, South American fusion of sweet potatoes with za'atar hummus and chimichurri are just a couple of dishes on the menu. Sounds delicious. That was Isabella Jewell reporting. And that is all from us from the Happy Pod for now.

We'd love to hear from you if you've got any stories to share that will make us all smile a bit. As ever, the address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Chris Ablakwa and the producers were Holly Gibbs and Rachel Barkley. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye. probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, AmeriCast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime,

all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts.