Scientists Claim Infrared Helmet Could Reverse Alzheimer's Symptoms

penguin_dance writes "Ready to put on your thinking cap? There's a report out of the UK regarding an 'experimental helmet which scientists say could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within weeks of being used'. The helmet is to be worn for ten minutes every day and stimulates the growth of brain cells using infra-red light. The article explains, 'Low level infra-red red is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull.' Human trials are due to start this summer." I wont make any nomad-based predictions, but I'll remain on the skeptic side of the fence for now.

Comments

Spaceballs The Helmet!

[Zymergy]

Seeing the linked article's image of the 3 Doctor's holding their experimental "Prototype Cognitive Helmet", I can't help but imagine one of them wearing it while reenacting Rick Moranis' doll-play monologue from Spaceballs:

[Playing with his dolls]
Dark Helmet: [In Dark Helmet voice] And now Princess Vespa, I have you in my clutches, to have my wicked way with you, the way I want to.
[In Vespa voice]
Dark Helmet: No, no, go away, I hate you! And yet... I find you strangely attractive.
[In D.H. voice]
Dark Helmet: Of course you do! Druish princesses are often attracted to money and power, and I have both, and you *know* it!
[In V. voice]
Dark Helmet: No, no, leave me alone!
[In D.H. voice]
Dark Helmet: No, kiss me!
[V]
Dark Helmet: No! Stop!
[D.H]
Dark Helmet: Yes, yes!
[V]
Dark Helmet: Oh, oh, oh! Ohhhh, your helmet is so big!

Sunlight?

[teeleton]

So how is this helmet different from just walking around in the sunshine? It's not like there isn't any infra-red light in ordinary sunlight.

So... the next logical question is...

[NotQuiteReal]

Won't it work even better on those of us who don't have the Alzheimer's, yet?

Skeptical and yet...

[SquierStrat]

My father has Alzheimer's. Most Alzheimer's patients are very kind and sweet but my father is so bitter that he is always angry because at 55 he realizes his brain is slowly killing him. His short term memory is nil. He walks especially slow and his communication is getting poorer. He was diagnosed in October 2005 and he was showing symptoms before that.

Frankly, This is an illustration of why our process of developing medications is ridiculous. This may not work (though I resent that "wontwork" tag) but frankly there are at least 3 very promising treatments for Alzheimer's Disease in early trials. But because of the length and the way trials work, if they are successful none of them will emerge from trials early enough to help my father. And frankly, he and my family would be willing to try anything to help him. And in the end the worse outcome is that he doesn't get better. But we will never know. 10 years from now Alzheimer's may be no worse than severe diabetes, MS, Crohn's Disease or what have you: controllable, not curable with a quality of life equivalent to most other people. But because we would rather not kill a dying person to find out if we'll kill them or save them, my father will never get benefit of this.

Re:Skeptical and yet...

[ilikepi314]

Oh come on; if one of your family members was given a vaccine and a weekly later developed some severe disease and died (even if they were already dying!), you would again go with the "deliberate malevolence" argument and probably sue someone.

Sorry, didn't mean to direct that toward you, this was actually meant to be a more general societal thing. Until people get over their sue-happy kick lately, all government entities are going to tread softly, I imagine, particularly those directly related to public health. People have sued for much less than rushing a medicine to market (coffee being hot comes to mind), so can you really blame them? Legal battles drain money from what could have funded more medicine research, etc.

However, a serious question to the parent especially: do you know how to sign up for the trials, is it too late? Someone somewhere has to be taking it or it wouldn't be a trial. I've never signed up for something like that, so I don't know what the process is and am partially asking out of curiosity myself.

Re:Skeptical and yet...

[roadsider]

No, actually the lawsuit was NOT frivolous. It was actually an exercise in corporate comeuppance.

The woman, who was elderly and rather frail, originally asked McDonalds to reimburse her for her medical bills incurred for treating second degree burns. While it may be necessary to BREW coffee at 205 degrees, it is not necessary (or prudent) to keep it on the warmer at that temperature, which McDonalds was doing.

The woman only brought the suit after McDonalds refused her request to compensate her medical bills. Pissed off by McDonald's stonewalling, the jury awarded punitive damages of well over $2 million. This was later reduced to just under half a million.

The 81 year old woman suffered THIRD DEGREE BURNS because McDonald's kept their coffee 20 degrees hotter than most other restaurants. They were punished because they were irresponsible and arrogant. I remember when I used to buy coffee at McDonald's how hot their coffee was compared to other places I frequented. They deserved what they got.

According to Wikipedia:

Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for US $20,000 to cover her medical costs, which were $11,000, but the company offered only $800. When McDonald's refused to raise its offer, Liebeck retained Texas attorney Reed Morgan. Morgan filed suit in a New Mexico District Court accusing McDonald's of "gross negligence" for selling coffee that was "unreasonably dangerous" and "defectively manufactured." McDonald's refused Morgan's offer to settle for $90,000.[4]

Morgan offered to settle for $300,000, and a mediator suggested $225,000 just before trial, but McDonald's refused these final pre-trial attempts to settle.[4]

McDonald's refused to settle perhaps because, though there had been numerous lawsuits alleging that hot coffee was "defectively manufactured," courts had consistently dismissed the cases before trial on the grounds that coffee burns were an open and obvious danger.

This was also reported in the Wall Street Journal. See:

http://www.reedmorganpc.com/wsj_coffee.htm

Frivolous, my ass.

Symptoms may be reversed in minutes--not weeks

[Anonymous Coward]

Another therapy reported in Science Daily shows reversal of Alzheimer's symptoms in minutes, rather than weeks

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109091102.htm

From the article:

"An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer's disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

"This new study highlights the importance of certain soluble proteins, called cytokines, in Alzheimer's disease. The study focuses on one of these cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), a critical component of the brain's immune system. Normally, TNF finely regulates the transmission of neural impulses in the brain. The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer's disease interfere with this regulation. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer's.

"The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer's patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study."

But seriously, the weather

[iminplaya]

An 80-year-old couple is having trouble remembering things, so they go
                to the doctor to make sure there's nothing wrong.
                After an exam, the doctor says, "You're physically okay, but you guys
                might want to start writing notes to help you remember things."
                That night they're watching TV when the old man gets up from his chair.
                His wife says, "Where are you going?"
                He says, "I'm going to the kitchen to get a glass of water."
                She says, "Will you get me some Vanilla ice cream?"
                He says, "All right."
                She says, "Don't you think you should write it down?"
                He says, "I don't have to write it down. Vanilla ice cream."
                She says, "And could I have strawberries and whipped cream?"
                He says, "All right."
                She says, "Don't you think you should write it down?"
                He says, "I don't have to write it down.Vanilla ice cream with
                strawberries and whipped cream."
                Twenty minutes later he walks in and hands her a plate of bacon and eggs.
                She says, "You forgot my fucking toast."

But...

[hyades1]

Will it help me remember what I actually wanted when I went down the steps to the basement?

Re:a lot harder than it sounds

[Wizard Drongo]

Oh, and your google-fu is lacking, Sir, because a brief search of my normal LED suppliers gave me this: http://www.roithner-laser.com/LED_diverse.htm which admittedly is 1070nm (2.5mW) nominal output rather than 1072nm. However, given that it's minimum is 1020 and it's maximum 1120 i'd say you're gonna be getting a fairly hefty amount of 1072nm light out of it. I notice they also do a high-power (like 150mW) LED panel which radiates at 1050nm (peak 1000~1100nm), which again isn't right on the money but is gonna give you enough to trial, given that they were talking about this clinical trial dosing patients with about the same amount of IR as regular sunlight. Granted these diodes don't come cheap, with the quoted price for the 1070nm LED being about $20 each, which given the number you'd want could get pretty expensive. But then, what cost is health?