Alzheimer’s Disease Reversed For the First Time [View all]

[kpete]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects more than 5 million Americans; worldwide, it affects more than 30 million people. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, cancers, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke and accidents.

In a recently published paper, Dale Bredesen at the Buck Institute showed that 9 of 10 patients participating in a program showed reversal of cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Six of the 10 study participants had had to leave work, or were struggling at their jobs, due to AD; after going through the program, all were able to return to work or to continue working at better performance levels.

This is the first time time that anyone has shown it possible to reverse memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s – so much so that 6 of the 10 patients who had left work or were struggling due to memory impairment were able to return to work or to keep working with improved performance.

To quote from the Abstract:

The first 10 patients who have utilized this program include patients with memory loss associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), or subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). Nine of the 10 displayed subjective or objective improvement in cognition beginning within 3-6 months, with the one failure being a patient with very late stage AD. Six of the patients had had to discontinue working or were struggling with their jobs at the time of presentation, and all were able to return to work or continue working with improved performance. Improvements have been sustained, and at this time the longest patient follow-up is two and one-half years from initial treatment, with sustained and marked improvement. These results suggest that a larger, more extensive trial of this therapeutic program is warranted. The results also suggest that, at least early in the course, cognitive decline may be driven in large part by metabolic processes.

http://impactaging.com/papers/v6/n9/full/100690.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/26/1354144/-Alzheimer-s-Disease-Reversed-For-the-First-Time