The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

This doctor is sure that Alzheimer's can be cured. How does his method work? - Walla! health

2021-02-19T06:19:31.609Z


Dr. Dale Bradsen has been researching Alzheimer's for years, and he is sure that the disease can be prevented and even improved by those who have had it through lifestyle changes. Here is a look at the first chapter of his new book "The End of Alzheimer's"


  • health

  • My health

This doctor is sure that Alzheimer's can be cured.

How does his method work?

Dr. Dale Bradsen has been researching Alzheimer's for years, and he is sure that the disease can be prevented and even improved by those who have had it through lifestyle changes. Here is a look at the first chapter of his new book "The End of Alzheimer's"

Tags

  • Alzheimer's

  • dementia

Walla!

health

Friday, 19 February 2021, 07:41

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on WhatsApp

  • Share on general

  • Share on general

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Email

0 comments

99.6% of efforts to find a cure for the disease have failed miserably.

Medications (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Interfere with dementia



There is nowhere to escape the bad news that lands on us morning news about a disease called Alzheimer’s;

That it has no cure and usually has no treatment, that there is no reliable way to prevent it, and that for decades it has defeated the best of the nervous system researchers in the world.

Despite many billions of dollars that government agencies, drug companies and biotechnology wizards invest in research to invent and test drugs for Alzheimer’s, 99.6% of all those efforts failed miserably and did not even pass the testing phase.

And if you think there is hope that those four tenths of a percent have led to discoveries that have indeed reached the market - we will agree to settle for one effective drug against Alzheimer's, yes?

- Let it.

The American Alzheimer's Association puts it bluntly, "Since 2003, no new drug for Alzheimer's has really been approved, and the drugs currently approved for Alzheimer's are ineffective in stopping the disease or slowing its development."

Although the four existing medications for Alzheimer's "may alleviate symptoms such as memory loss and confusion," they only manage to do so "for limited periods of time."

More on Walla!

NEWS

Will corona increase the risk of dementia in the future?

To the full article

Maybe you're trying to memorize now and think about when was the last time you heard the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug for Alzheimer's.

Do not worry if you could not remember - out of 244 experimental drugs for Alzheimer's tested between 2010-2000, exactly one drug was approved - from Mantin, and it happened in 2003.

And as I will explain later, its effectiveness is limited at most.



Like I said, dismal.

No wonder the last thing we want to hear is a diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

One man whose wife gradually faded before his eyes due to Alzheimer's disease shook his head sadly and said: "We are constantly told that drug development workers are going to delay the process - but who wants that at all? I tell you, living with it day after day is the last thing anyone He's supposed to want to. "

More on Walla!

NEWS

  • Eating nuts from this age on can prevent dementia

  • Can air pollution cause brain damage to young people?

  • In less than half an hour you have an accurate solution to leg and back pain - and it starts from the bottom

Alzheimer's disease frequently appears in public discourse.

In articles, blogs and podcasts, radio, television and film, documentaries and drama, we read and hear story after story about Alzheimer's.

Unfortunately, none of them have a happy ending.

We are more afraid of Alzheimer's than of any other disease, and there are at least two reasons for this.



The first reason: Alzheimer's disease is the only disease - in the list of the ten most common causes of death in the United States that does not have effective treatment.

If we had a drug or other intervention that would have improved even slightly the condition of people with Alzheimer's, not to mention curing the disease, I would have praised it head on.

And I would be joined by anyone who has ever loved someone who has Alzheimer's, anyone who is at risk for Alzheimer's and of course anyone who has already developed the disease.

But there are no such drugs.

We do not even have a treatment that will prevent the onset of Alzheimer's in people who already suffer from subjective cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment (two conditions that often precede Alzheimer's development).



It's hard to believe, given the impressive advances in other medical fields over the past 20 years - for example in cancer, HIV / AIDS or cystic fibrosis, cardiovascular disease - but as of this writing in 2017, not only is Alzheimer's disease an incurable disease, We do not even have any reliable means to prevent it from erupting or slowing it down.

Familiar with the tendency of film and television critics to ridicule dramas about angelic children or holy mothers or brave fathers battling cancer, and with the help of the latest miracle cure return to full health just before the end credits?

Obviously it's sentimental and sticky, but we at Alzheimer's would be very happy to compromise on such a sweet ending in exchange for a shred of chance to provide a good and reliable ending to the script.



The second reason why Alzheimer's disease is so frightening is that it is not just another "terminal" disease.

There are many terminal illnesses.

Life is finite, as the well-known joke article puts it.

But Alzheimer's is worse than death.

For many years, sometimes decades, before the door to the angel of death on the doorstep with the scythe opens, Alzheimer's disease robs its victims of the essence of their humanity and terrifies their families.

Their memories, their ability to think, their ability to live a full and independent life - everything is gone, in a sad and prolonged deterioration to a mental depression where they no longer recognize the people closest to them, the past, the world and even themselves.

Cover of the book "An End to Alzheimer's" (Photo: Opus Publishing)

The professor of linguistics, the protagonist of the film "Still Alice" from 2014, is a carrier of a genetic mutation that was discovered in 1995, a mutation that causes the development of Alzheimer's at a relatively young age.

You may have had the opportunity to read about the great steps that biologists have been able to achieve in cancer research with discoveries of genes associated with tumors and drug development based on those discoveries.

But when it comes to Alzheimer's?

That discovery from 1995 did not even lead to the development of a single drug for Alzheimer's.



And there is another fact that distinguishes this terrible disease.

The last 50 years have brought with them many victories in molecular biology and in the study of the brain and nervous system.

Biologists have been able to decipher the complex pathways leading to cancer and have invented barriers including many of them.

We mapped out the chemical and electrical processes that take place in the brain and underlie emotions and thoughts, we developed effective, even if imperfect, medications for depression and schizophrenia, anxiety, and bipolar disorder.

Of course, there is much more to learn, and much more room for improvement in the drugs currently available in our drug pool.

But in almost every disease there is a strong sense that research is at least progressing in the right direction, that we have already understood the basics, and that although nature will continue to throw difficult challenges at us, it has also revealed to us what the basic rules of the game are.

Not so with Alzheimer's.



Apparently solid evidence from experiments on rats and mice in the laboratory indicated that Alzheimer's disease is caused by destruction of the synapses in the brain due to the accumulation of sticky sedimentary layers, consisting of protein fragments called amyloid-beta.

Laboratory studies have shown that amyloid-beta is formed in the brain in stages, and that any intervention in these stages or destruction of the amyloid layers will be beneficial and may even prevent Alzheimer's.

Since the 1980s, most neurobiology researchers have referred to this basic idea, known as the amyloid hypothesis, as a dominant medical convention.

Its developers have won awards worth millions of dollars, praise from the floor and prestigious status in academia.

The idea has had a huge impact in deciding which articles and studies on Alzheimer's will be published in top medical journals and which studies will be funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the primary source of funding for biomedical research.



But then the unexpected happened.

When drug companies began trying compounds based, if only slightly, on the amyloid hypothesis, the results ranged from frustrating to confusing.

In the clinical trials, the human brains did not respond to the compounds as they were supposed to respond according to the manual we were given.

It would have been one thing if the drugs had simply not done what they were made to do.

But that's not what happened.

In many cases the compounds (usually antibodies that bind to the amyloid in order to remove it) actually did a great job of removing the amyloid layers.

Or, if it was a compound designed to block the enzyme needed to make amyloid, it was able to achieve that goal.

The experimental compounds worked exactly as their developers intended them to, following the guidelines of the new amyloid guide that was discovered, but the patients' condition did not improve and sometimes, unbelievably, even worsened.

What has repeatedly emerged from clinical trials (which, by the way, often cost $ 50 million or more per trial) is the complete opposite of everything predicted by laboratory studies based on the amyloid hypothesis and all models of mice and all theories of the amyloid hypothesis.

Determining that amyloid is the target was supposed to be the golden card for curing Alzheimer’s.

It did not happen.

The narrow-minded attachment to the amyloid hypothesis is tragic. "Amyloid accumulation in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient (Photo: ShutterStock)

The narrow-minded clinging to the amyloid hypothesis is tragic, and no less tragic is the prevalent premise prevalent in mainstream medicine that Alzheimer’s is a single disease.

As such a disease, the most commonly given treatment is Donfazil (Asante, Memorite) and / or Memantine (Abixa, Mamox).

Donafzil is a drug that inhibits cholinesterase: it prevents a certain enzyme (cholinesterase) from destroying acetylcholine, a chemical in the brain called a neurotransmitter - a neurotransmitter.

Neurotransmitters transmit electrical signals between neurons (nerve cells), and so we think, remember, feel and move, so they are important for memory and all brain functions.

The rationale of the drug is simple: in the minds of Alzheimer's patients there is a decrease in the levels of the substance acetylcholine.

If we block the enzyme (cholinesterase) that breaks down acetylcholine, there will be more acetylcholine in the synapses.

Then, while the disease is wreaking havoc on the brain, the synapses may be able to continue to function, for a period of time.



This rationale does work to a very slight extent but with some important limitations.

The first is that stopping the breakdown of acetylcholine does not affect the cause of the further development of Alzheimer's.

The second is that for the most part the brain responds to cholinesterase inhibitors as it is expected to respond, i.e. to increased production of acetylcholine.

Obviously, this fact limits the effectiveness of the medication (and can become a serious problem if you stop taking the medication at once).

Third, like all medications, cholinesterase inhibitors have side effects including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, headaches, joint pain, drowsiness, loss of appetite and slowing of heart rate.



Regarding memantine, a drug that also acts on chemical compounds and molecules in the brain that are not directly related to the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease, but like Donfasil it may reduce (and even delay) the symptoms of the disease, for a certain period of time at least.

The drug is usually given in advanced stages of the disease, sometimes in combination with cholinesterase inhibitors.

Memantine inhibits the passage of electrical signals in the brain from one neuron to an adjacent neuron through the neurotransmitter glutamate.

Delay of transmission reduces the excitotoxic damage of glutamate, i.e. the toxic result associated with neural activity.

Unfortunately, memantine may also suppress the synaptic transfer essential for memory formation, and therefore may initially impair cognitive functions.



The most important fact is that cholinesterase and mementin inhibitors do not affect the underlying causes of Alzheimer's at all and do not stop the aggravation of the disease - and certainly do not cure it.



And if that's not enough, there's another problem, more basic.

Alzheimer's is not a single disease.

The symptoms may indicate one disease, there are three main subtypes of Alzheimer's.

That these three prominent subtypes each function as a result of a different biochemical process.

Each requires different treatment.

Trying to treat everyone the same way is just as naive as trying to treat all infections with the same antibiotic.


The fact that Alzheimer's disease has consistently defeated the great minds in science and medicine for 30 years is serious enough.

Any sensible person can see that this is not the right approach.

The idea of ​​identifying the cause of amyloid production and removing that factor before removing the amyloid itself has not even been tested.



If you are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's because of the genes in your body, if you have already developed the disease or if you have ever loved someone who has had it, you have earned the right to feel unhappy and disturbed by this condition.


No wonder we learned to fear Alzheimer's and see it as an omnipotent disease.

To believe that the struggle is lost.

Which is immune to any treatment.



Up to now.



Say this clearly: Alzheimer's can be prevented, and in many cases can be reversed in the process of cognitive decline.

This is exactly what my colleagues and I have proven in peer-reviewed studies and published in leading medical journals - studies describing, for the first time, this result in patients.

Yes, I know that the claim that cognitive decline can be corrected puts ridicule on decades of profound knowledge, and that it takes a great deal of audacity to claim that there are hundreds of patients that this is exactly what happened to them, and we know today about steps we can all take to prevent cognitive decline. Inevitable and irreversible.

These claims are indeed far-reaching and worthy of all doubt.

I expect you to have quite a few doubts when you read about the 30 years of research in my lab, which led to the first cases of improvement in cognitive decline in Alzheimer's patients in the early stages of the disease and in conditions often preceding the disease itself, MCI (mild cognitive impairment) and SCI (subjective cognitive impairment) .

I expect you to doubt as you read the stories of these patients, who climbed and ascended back from the abysses of cognitive decline.

I expect you to doubt when you read about the customized treatment programs we have developed to prevent each and every one cognitive impairment and also, if signs have already been discovered, to stop the decline in mental fitness, restore memory and thinking abilities and return to a life of complete cognitive health.



In the application of the protocol I describe, people with cognitive impairment who have not yet been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and people whose disease already controls their lives can not only stop the cognitive decline they are already suffering from, but often even reverse its direction.

For those people at these stages the progression to severe dementia has so far been inevitable, and they have only heard bad news from experts everywhere they have gone.

This anti-Alzheimer's protocol developed by my colleagues and I is launching this prevalent and dismal convention straight into the dustbin of history.



A group, perhaps less predictable, of people whose book the book could change their lives are all past the age of 40. At the top of our list of concerns as we age (and, in terms of brain aging, decline begins at age 40 or so) is the loss of our cognitive abilities.

Because these abilities - read a letter from a loved one and understand it, follow the plot of a movie or book, see the people in our lives and understand them, understand the events around us and know our place in the world, perform basic daily activities so as not to be bags of material dependent on others to Eating, dressing, moving and showering, remembering the events in our lives and the people who were the focus of these events - are the abilities that define us as human beings.

When we lose these abilities, we also lose our very identity as an entity that has meaning in its life.

For those of you who were lucky and did not experience the slightest hint of losing all these abilities but are well aware that this threat may be lurking for them in the future, this is my message: take a deep breath and understand that cognitive decline - for most of us at least, especially in early development.

Despite everything you may have been told, it is neither hopeless nor irreversible.

vice versa.

For the first time ever, hope and Alzheimer's meet.



And the reason for this is one basic discovery: Alzheimer's "disease" is not the result of something the brain does and should not do, unlike cancer which is the result of cells multiplying at a rate too fast, or heart disease which is the result of blockage of the blood vessels at the sclerotic level.

Alzheimer's disease stems from a healthy self-program to reduce the synaptic network in the brain.

But the show went crazy, it's reminiscent of Mickey Mouse's efforts to team up with the enchanted brooms to carry the buckets of water in his place in the famous "Magician's Apprentice" scene from "Fantasy," the 1940 Disney animated film in which the brooms get out of hand.

Even in Alzheimer’s, a normal household process in the brain has gone crazy.



The conclusion from the studies in our lab is this: No one should die from Alzheimer’s.

Say it again: no one should die of Alzheimer’s.



End to Alzheimer's: The first cognitive program to prevent cognitive decline and reversal by Dale Bradsen, published in Opus

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on WhatsApp

  • Share on general

  • Share on general

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Email

0 comments

Source: walla

All life articles on 2021-02-19

You may like

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.