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Drug Halts Decline In Alzheimer's Patients
ljw1004 writes "Alzheimer's researchers are divided on whether the disease is caused by 'beta amyloid' (a peptide found in Alzheimer brains) or by 'tau protein' (normally used for cellular scaffolding, but can aggregate out of control and destroy neurons). Today in Chicago a new drug has been announced that stops tau aggregation and appears to have halted Alzheimer's-related decline in 300 clinical trial patients. The drug is known as 'rember.' Do you have friends or family who appear to be on the road to dementia? Here is an online questionnaire, part of one used in the clinical trial to diagnose dementia. (Disclosure: I made the online questionnaire, and my father is one of the scientists behind the drug.)"
It's hard to think of a scarier disease than one where you slowly lose your mental faculties. I'd take almost any other disease over Alzheimer's.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
For clarity and completeness I should add:
This is awesome news. My grandfather is suffering from an advanced state of this disease and it's horrible to see in what state he currently 'lives'.
He does not recognize me, or my brothers, or my parents (inc. his own son!).
Perhaps my first post (parent) sounded like I did not take this seriously. I guess it's more of a coping mechanism that got in action.
To all the scientists: please keep up this wonderful work! It'll probably be too late for my grandfather, but no-one should have to suffer like.
I hope that it won't be long before it helps to save many lives from being destroyed.
"He does not recognize me, or my brothers, or my parents (inc. his own son!)."
This just goes to show us how important our memory systems are in our intelligence and what an important role it plays in our lives.
Unless you recently fired a bunch of US Attorneys, in which case losing your memory can be extraordinarily helpful.
you mean it's horrible for you to see how he's doing. He's probably past the stage where he knows that 'there is something wrong'. :)
That's the stage I had the most problems with when my grandfather had Alzheimers'.
When he got to the stage where he thought he was a little boy again, he was much more cheerful. Again, for the family it was no pleasure to see that, but he had the time of his life
He was looking for a high-end brain specialist in neurochemistry at last report. Subby's dad fits the bill.
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I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I do work in health care, on a Memory Care Unit, specifically. The MCU is designed for people with many forms of dementia, our most common diagnosis being Alzheimer's. I am sure you know many of the ugly symptoms of this disease. Confusion, loss of memory, loss of fine motor skills, deteriorating ability to perform activities of daily living, eventual death, etc. This drug may sound like a godsend, but think about it for a moment.
If your loved one breaks down crying several times a day because he or she can't tell where everyone is or where they are, if he goes into violent rages because he thinks he is being held against his will, if he lives in a constant state of fear because he knows something is wrong but he can't figure out what it is, if he tries day after day to go home but his captors refuse to et him go, causing him to fear for his life... do you really want a drug that will keep him in that state, somewhat permanently?
At best, wait until the affected person progresses to a state of Alzheimer's that is more comfortable for him or her -- around stage 5 (out of 7 total) people forget that something is wrong and they happily live their lives in total confusion. Then start the drug therapy. But stalling people's progress in a state that makes them absolutely miserable is not a miracle drug's miracle cure. It's torture.
Check out http://www.iatbdementiacare.com/index2.html I worked with the guy who runs the site and wrote the book on Dementia Possible Care. He is crazy insightful and smart when it comes to caring for people with Alzheimer's. Trust me, the $20 for the book will serve you tremendously.
Too bad for the editors this won't be available for a few years.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
First of all I understand completely what you're saying and to a certain extend that is true.
But on the other side, his body is starting to fail and he is suffering from that. "Gradually, minor and major bodily functions are lost" as Wikipedia describes it.
It's getting somewhat better now, but recently he could barely breath, general pain all over his body and basically unable to swallow, combined with a cough he developed. He could not even eat Apple mush when helped.
Every now and then he has a 'good moment' and suddenly he can say more than 5 words without falling asleep again, but the general condition is suffering for him.
I know this could sound weird to some, but every time he closes his eyes I just hope that he drifts away to a better place and stays there.
Shame on you making jokes about this dreadful disease. Alzheimer is a disease which takes a heavy toll on those around the patient. There are some subjects which are better off without jokes involved. This exacerbated need for humour is a symptom of need of being oblivious to a harsh reality. Please, get your act together, folks. Let's show some more respect here.
No, definitely not. You raise a valid point and I understand it completely.
My parent post should be seen more in the light of 'progress IS finally being made'... perhaps one day we can label it a disease that can be prevented.
Not just for 'everyone out there', but I have to admit also from a slightly selfish perspective:
My grand father was a fish salesman for his entire life. All the Omega 3 fish oil he has ingested wasn't enough to prevent it.
Then there's my father. We (mother, brother, me) are not sure if it's his current stress level, but in the last few months he is less 'sharp' than he used to be and his memory does fail him every now and then.
He's 57 and the idea alone that he might be heading for the same road is very terrifying to say the least.
And my brother and I are also starting to fear that we might have inherited a genetic disposition for this disease.
Personally I love learning.. I'm an addicted to knowledge and I'll pick up a book in bed even if my body is almost robbing me of my consciousness by force.
The idea that 'everything that I am' might one day start to slowly degrade freaks me out. Euthanasia is a word that comes up in this context if this situation might start to become a reality in a (hopefully) very distant future.
You make a valid point for patients who are already in the MCU, but your thinking is a bit shortsighted. If this drug works as advertised, it truly IS a godsend; not to those who have deteriorated to a state requiring constant care, but rather those patients who are diagnosed in the early stages of the disease. In this population, the drug could prevent them from ever progressing to the point that hospitalization is necessary.
-- Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. -- Albert Einstein
In what way is this not science? Hypothesis 1: Compound A is effective against disease X. Falsified. Hypothesis 2: Compound B is effective against disease Y. Falsified. Hypothesis 3: Compound C is effective against disease Z. Not falsified. Perform double-blind tests and find a dosage that is safe and effective. Sounds like science to me.
How would you conduct a search for safe and effective drugs? If you have a better way, I'm sure pharma companies would be all ears!
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Actually, watching someone with advancing (but not yet devestating) Alzheimers can also show you how little memory is needed for intelligence. People can continue to cope in social situations for quite a while operating almost statelessly to guess at how they should behave. Only when you pay close attention do you realize the serious short-term memory deficit.
This is just another huge money grab for big pharmaceutical companies. Why should you guys get to make any money off of this? All you did was cure Alzheimer's disease. Why should rich people get to avoid dementia when the poorest can't afford it? Shouldn't everyone get dementia equally?
When are we going to stop these big rich drug companies from making these obscene profits for merely curing diseases and plagues?
[Evil socialism off]
I actually hope you guys succeed and make billions. If I get Alzheimer's disease someday, it's nice to know there might be a cure, even if I have to pay you for your effort to find it.
Shame on you making jokes about this dreadful disease.
My dad seems to have Alzheimer's - he now lives in a veteran's home, often doesn't know who his kids are, or that he has any, who his wife is, etc. It seems like his greatest point of clarity is that he doesn't want to be in the home, so we have to make excuses every time we leave there without him. Plus he had some recent dental issues (all his upper teeth are falling apart) - my mom arranged for him to get dentures, but he had a habit of taking them out and now he's lost them. She won't be getting him more, and I can't blame her.
This from a guy who used to be very active in the Ham Radio community, a sometimes-tinkerer in programming and circuits, etc. One of the sadder stories, IMO, is of how one time after the onset of the disease (when he could still live at home but had degraded to the point where he couldn't track complicated discussions or follow instructions, etc.) someone from the ham radio community called him up looking to ask him a question - and I guess from the course of the discussion figured out what happened. That must be really sad.
So, yeah, when people post lame jokes like "I was going to post something here but I forgot what" - it's like I want to smack 'em up-side the head and be like, "do you know what this disease really does? It made this man paranoid that my visiting 7-year old cousin might constitute some mortal threat. It's not just about forgetting things."
But, you know what? I also hate this whole attitude of bitching out the "insensitive clods" of the world. Yes, "my dad has Alzheimer's you insensitive clod." But all the same I don't think anything should be considered outside the domain of a good joke. Let's have fun and laugh! :D
Bow-ties are cool.