Alzheimers Big Breakthrough

Lara

Lara

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"The big breakthrough is that neuroinflammation is the target. It's killing the bulk of the nerve cells that leads to dementia," said Rudolph Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard University and the director of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Millions at risk of Alzheimer's now
..."If you want to hit the plaques [which docs have been doing], you have to do so early on with early detection," Tanzi said. "I believe that will be the future for preventing Alzheimer's disease. But for now, how do we help the 5 million patients in this country? "
Putting out the inflammation fire
Tanzi is working with a Boston-based company called AZTherapies to find drugs already in existence that can tackle that neuroinflammation.
...The hunt for an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease will remain critical as the number of patients — estimated as 5.8 million in the U.S. alone — is projected to swell to 14 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimer's Association. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S.
...There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease. Available treatments can only improve quality of life and temporarily slow a person's decline.
I feel like we're finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
Tanzi...suggests an approach he calls SHIELD, an acronym for lifestyle factors that appear to help reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's. They include:
  • Sleep habits
  • Handle on stress
  • Interacting with friends
  • Exercising daily
  • Learning new skills
  • Diet
"It's never too early to start thinking about how to protect your brain," he said. He is hopeful those lifestyle changes, plus research into neuroinflammation, will make a marked impact on Alzheimer's disease.

By Erika Edwards and Ali Galante
This just info came on NBC Nightly News 7/16/19 (quoted in part)
 

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Interesting. On the advice of an old country doctor and family friend, I began taking a couple of aspirin (the original NSAID/anti-inflammatory) at bedtime when I was in my late 20's.. I'm now 85+ and still have an exceptionally well-functioning brain. I'm not giving medical advice but I'm just saying ..........
 
Diet is huge for inflammation and medical science is just beginning to understand all that's totally not understood about the gut/brain connection and the impact of the gut microbiome on inflammation. And our environment is loaded with toxins now, and we overstimulate our immune systems with ever increasing poorly studied (and often completely unnecessary) vaccines.
 

Ugh.... I'm reading this after getting up after 3-1/2 hours sleep because of a stressful, upsetting event yesterday. So much for S & H. I'll likely catch a nap early afternoon, but that's not nearly as good as a solid nighttime sleep.

Thanks for posting this, Lara.
 
Any thing that gives us an insight into what causes AZ or in fact anything that can prevent it can only be a step forward ...

However many people who have the disease already follow all the SHIELD advice..

My granny was one... she worked hard all her life.. she slept well, she was under no more stress than the average person, she kept her mind very active, and her weight was always stable, and she never snacked on anything unhealthy.. yet like thousands, nay probably hundreds of thousands doing the same, she died from the effects of AZ way back in 1982...
 
don't worry about lack of sleep on various nights, starsong but a consistency of short intervals of sleep at night causes us to lose that important deep rem sleep, and that would be me unfortunately. 3.5asleep/2awake/3asleep. thats typical for me so i get enough hours of sleep but the quality is probably a fail overall.

i don't mind it because 2hours of nighttime awakeness is a nice quiet time to read, play sudoku, be creative, and catch up with sf. but i should try to change that up. 6 or 7 straight hours is healthier. pain affects sleep like my broken shoulder right now.
 
Lara said:
don't worry about lack of sleep on various nights, starsong but a consistency of short intervals of sleep at night causes us to lose that important deep rem sleep, and that would be me unfortunately. 3.5asleep/2awake.../3asleep. thats typical for me so i get enough hours of sleep but the quality is probably a fail overall.

i don't mind it because 2hours of nighttime awakeness is a nice quiet time to read, play sudoku, and be creative, and catch up with sf. but i should try to change that up. 6 or 7 straight hours is healthier. pain affects sleep like my broken shoulder right now.
Click to expand...
Personally the lack of quality of sleep I get worries me..

I get off to sleep well enough, but the tossing and turning and the nightly vivid dreams, leave me exhausted in the morning... . As sleep is when your body is repairing itself, I feel that's not happening with me at all..and it does concern me that in recent times , I've been losing more and more of my short term memory!!
 
We all face and have stressors in our life. Some daily and for others, just now and then. It’s being able to handle those stressors and get past it. Not easy for some, I know, but we have to learn how to handle our stressors. For some, it’s reading, fishing or whatever. If we sit around and dwell on them, they won’t go away and they may even consume us.

I like what is happening with the research. Now, if we could only find a cure for Cancer.
 


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