Why Is This Important?
Because after over 100 years this could be the first step towards treating the most common form of dementia.
Long Story Short
A small trial by UCLA and the Buck Institute has shown improvements in memory by Alzheimer’s patients after undertaking a 36-point therapeutic program, giving hope for effective treatment in the future.
Long Story
Since it was identified in 1906 by German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer, no method has been found to treat Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia that is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050.
However, a trial by UCL’s Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging has shown encouraging results. A complex 36-step process that involves changes in diet, brain stimulation, sleep patterns, exercise, pharmaceuticals and vitamins was tested on 10 sufferers. Nine of the 10 displayed subjective or objective improvements in their memory within three to six months.
The patients included a man who found he could no longer remember familiar faces at work or his work schedule and a woman who used an iPad to record everything because her memory couldn’t be trusted before she forgot the password. Six of the test subjects had either quit or were considering quitting jobs due to Alzheimer’s but they were fit to return to work after undertaking the therapeutic program. The sole subject who didn’t improve at all had late stage Alzheimer’s disease.
Although this is potentially a huge breakthrough in the way we deal with Alzheimer’s disease, the author of the paper, Dale Bredesen, Augustus Rose Professor of Neurology and Director of the Easton Centre has warned that more extensive clinical trials are needed, but admits it is at last progress. “In the past decade alone, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted for Alzheimer’s at an aggregate cost of over a billion dollars, without success,” he is quoted as saying by Neuroscience News. “This is the first successful demonstration.”
MenFrance 