Hope for Alzheimer’s
Every day we hear news of another dementia cure, and it’s a great way to sell newspapers. Beware of junk science that is not peer reviewed. If things like champagne, coffee and chocolate worked, we would not be in the situation we are in!
Nonetheless, hope is an important part of our message as Christians. There is a great deal of work going on towards a cure and there are promising leads.
With the rise of the concept of personalized medicine, a new approach to diagnosis may involve a large battery of tests quantifying everything possible in the body – a person’s individual genome, all fluids, their gut microbiome, and so on. Computer algorithms are then used to calculate what illnesses are occurring or likely to occur, why, and what to do about it. Leroy Hood of the Institute for Systems Biology started a company called Arivale to do this work. Dale Bredesen takes a similar approach using a great deal of data, but is focused on dementia. He believes that dementia has as many as 60 causes, and any one person may have 5 or 6 of these factors that need to be addressed. The factors include: genetics, inflammation, immune system, hormonal balance, exposure to toxic metals, gut health, blood brain barrier, body mass index, interference by medications, prediabetes? etc. Bredesen notes that if there are multiple causes and just one cause is “fixed” (e.g. by taking Aricept), then the illness will not subside because there are still other causes. He compares this to a leaky roof with many holes – fixing one hole does not solve the problem.
Medicines attacking the beta-amyloid plaques are now in use, with limited success.
•Lecanemab, (Leqembi) a monoclonal antibody against amyloid (IV injection 2x/mo)
Immune system clears abnormal clumps of beta amyloid
1800 patients with MCI or Early Alzheimer’s over 18 months
Slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27 percent
Approved by FDA and Medicare 2023
•Donanemab (Kisunla) - treatment slowed clinical decline by 35% compared to placebo, and resulted in 40% less decline on the ability to perform activities of daily living.
Need to also address tau protein, which forms tangles that are also neurotoxic.
Ultimate treatment maybe a “cocktail” of drugs like for HIV/AIDS
Nonetheless, hope is an important part of our message as Christians. There is a great deal of work going on towards a cure and there are promising leads.
With the rise of the concept of personalized medicine, a new approach to diagnosis may involve a large battery of tests quantifying everything possible in the body – a person’s individual genome, all fluids, their gut microbiome, and so on. Computer algorithms are then used to calculate what illnesses are occurring or likely to occur, why, and what to do about it. Leroy Hood of the Institute for Systems Biology started a company called Arivale to do this work. Dale Bredesen takes a similar approach using a great deal of data, but is focused on dementia. He believes that dementia has as many as 60 causes, and any one person may have 5 or 6 of these factors that need to be addressed. The factors include: genetics, inflammation, immune system, hormonal balance, exposure to toxic metals, gut health, blood brain barrier, body mass index, interference by medications, prediabetes? etc. Bredesen notes that if there are multiple causes and just one cause is “fixed” (e.g. by taking Aricept), then the illness will not subside because there are still other causes. He compares this to a leaky roof with many holes – fixing one hole does not solve the problem.
Medicines attacking the beta-amyloid plaques are now in use, with limited success.
•Lecanemab, (Leqembi) a monoclonal antibody against amyloid (IV injection 2x/mo)
Immune system clears abnormal clumps of beta amyloid
1800 patients with MCI or Early Alzheimer’s over 18 months
Slowed cognitive and functional decline by 27 percent
Approved by FDA and Medicare 2023
•Donanemab (Kisunla) - treatment slowed clinical decline by 35% compared to placebo, and resulted in 40% less decline on the ability to perform activities of daily living.
Need to also address tau protein, which forms tangles that are also neurotoxic.
Ultimate treatment maybe a “cocktail” of drugs like for HIV/AIDS