Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-04/early-diagnosis-alzheimers
Proposed news guidelines for diagnosing Alzheimer's include brain scans and spinal taps that may detect the disease before any symptoms appear. We explore the pros and cons of diagnosing Alzheimer's early and the ongoing search for new treatments.
Guests
Brigid Reynolds
clinical care coordinator, Memory Disorders Program
Georgetown University Medical Center
Dr. Laurie Ryan
National Institute on Aging, Division of Neuroscience, NIH
Dr. John Morris
professor of Neurology
and director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Dr. Sanjay Pimplikar
associate professor, department of neurosciences,
Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute
Comments
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Knowing that we are at high risk for Alzheimer's disease may help us focus on a regimen of physical and mental exercises as we grow older and maintain a balanced diet. Recent evidence shows that reduced-calorie diets prolong life.
You may wish to read more here:
http://brainmindinstrev.blogspot.com/2009/02/reduced-calorie-diet-body-m...
My dad is 83 and using Aricept and Namenda, it appears to be helping him. I'm 53 and so of course I am concerned that I'm pre-dispositioned for the same thing. Would you ask the panel if these current medicines for Alzheimers have any preventative value?
Mike
Orlando, Florida
I like you show.
I would like you to investigate the the city of indianapolis for sending 160 cabbies out business without any warning or giving them notice to comply. We the taxi driver are hurting because business has been slow and now we are out of work. Your sister station reported this moring about it today morning.
thank you very much
What do you know about Aricept? Are there any tests, independent of the drug company, regarding Aricept? Are there benefits above the side effects?
Please discuss the recent research related to inhaled insulin and reversal of some symptoms.
Can you please ask your guests to comment on the diagnosis of Lewy Bodies' disease among the elderly who present with symptoms of demensia? It is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimers and yet is it almost entirely unknown even by medical practitioners who work with the elderly. It took over a year to properly diagnose my brother-in-law because the disease mimics both Alzheimers and Parkinson's, however, the treatment for Parkinson's actually makes the condition worse so a faulty diagnosis can be disastrous.
Kathryn
Our family is new to this journey as caregivers to a person with AD. Dad is 84, presently showing moderate cognitive difficulties and is on Namenda and Aricept. While we don't recognize any benefit from these drugs, we do wonder what is status would be without them. We are in the process of deciding if he should participate in the ICARA study. It appears that the benefit will not be to him, nor even to his children as useful application is years down the road. However, it has the potential to benefit his descendants and others who may struggle with AD. A hard decision to make, as there are spinal taps, MRI's, many hour long drug infusions and a great deal of commitment. In view of the fact that really effective drugs are far down the road, what can his children do right now to help prevent or mitigate the effects of AD--exercise, antioxidants, vitamin D, fish oil, curry? We've heard it all. Any ideas what will really help?
My grandmother was a part of an Aricept study. She got such bad leg cramps she couldn't walk til she stopped taking it, and couldn't sleep. When she did sleep she had TERRIBLE nightmares.
How is it legal for their website to only say "muscle cramps" and not "debilitating muscle cramps" or "feel tired" instead of "insomnia" We could barely tell whether her cognitive function was decreasing or whether she was just really, REALLY tired. My mother is CONVINCED that low thyroid was the cause of her lower cognitive function (because she and I both have it).
Connie in Winston Salem, nc
Their site: http://www.aricept.com/sideeffects.html?source=google&HBX_PK=aricept+side+effects&HBX_OU=50&o=50:23060039|165867467|0
Please encourage your listeners to contact the Alzheimer’s Association for support and information on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, care giving and research. The Association recently has launched TrialMatch, a free service that makes it easy for people with Alzheimer's, caregivers, families and physicians to locate clinical trials based on personal criteria (diagnosis, stage of disease) and location. Information is available 24/7 at 800.272.3900 or at www.alz.org.
I have a family member who has Alzheimers. I have also led a group for Alzheimer caregivers. I had read that after death, some people showed signs of the disease on the brain--but never showed any symptoms of the disease during the person's lifetime. Are there activities, etc. that we are learning people can do to hold back the loss of one's mind? You see a lot of advertizing - but what has been shown to work?
Guilt.
In retrospect my mom was experiencing early onset Alzheimer's as much as ten years prior to any type of testing or diagnosis. We put her through "you're just lazy" " it's depression" "hormonal imbalance" "herbal remedies" "concentrate more" messages from doctors and other professionals before finally exhaustive and expensive psychological testing revealed Alzheimer's. We have felt guilt for putting her through those misdiagnoses and sending the message that this was somehow her fault and she could do something about it. Early and better testing would allow families to not experience such things. I just completed my first battery of tests as a baseline (because of the potential hereditary factor) for future testing. Fortunately my insurance covers it but many are not so fortunate. My mom died at age 73 and I am 46.
2 points:
We don't need more money, we need less, with a better focus. Clinical trials are sexy and appealing to the public, but they are expensive and pretty much useless , because WE DON'T KNOW THE CAUSE of this disease. Focus research monies on bright, young scientists, who aren't tangled up (pardon the pun) in the old ideas: beta-amyloid, tau, beta-secretase - DEAD ENDS! (And yes, I am a scientist, but retired, age 65). The grant review process is dominated by the old guard, who believe that, with just a little more money, their pet idea (one of those mentioned above) will be borne out. Any new, off-the-wall idea gets canned. The agencies should be REQUIRED to give a certain percentage of grant monies to people who have never gotten a grant before.
And I'll come to point 2 in my next comment, because I used up too many letetrs in this one...
Point 2: diagnostic procedures, like MRI/PET scans. Please, these are just ways for hospitals to pay for their VERY EXPENSIVE MRI units. Telling some poor patient that, "yes, we found plaques here and here and here, that's your problem" helps him not at all. The docs can't do anything about the plaques (no drugs, remember?), but they get a handsome fee repeating useless information, and the hospital gets to bill someone (the govt?) for the use of that big magnetic behemoth.
Ironically, the people who MIGHT benefit from this procedure are the small percentage (maybe 1-5%) who, after being scanned, discover that they don't have Alzheimer's, but some other disease, for which there may be a useful therapy.
Coming back to my first point (in the previous post), spend money on research to find out the CAUSE, then you will have some insight into the cure.
I frankly do not bear much hope for drug therapies as long as we do not understand the causation of the disease sufficiently to be able to devise drugs that go beyond symptomatic treatment.
After stroke, behavioral therapies that emphasize the use of the affected limbs are known to help rescue nerve cells in the brain and substantially improve recovery of function. In analogy, therapies that challenge our cognitive abilities and recall may help stem the deterioration of our mind in Alzheimer's disease. A stimulus-rich environment strengthens the connections between the nerve cells that support memory in the brain.
Read more here:
http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2007/12/about-value-of-exercise-after-...
As caregiver for an elderly parent who was misdiagnosed as having Alzheimer's when he actually had another form of dementia, I am very much in favor of the new guidelines. My dad took expensive medicine for nearly a decade that may have negatively affected his health and shortened his life. You can read more about this experience at http://www.desperatecaregivers.com/a-long-distance-caregiver-no-more. I think the percentage of misdiagnosis may be quite high, if my father's experience is any indicator.