Scientists hunt ways to stall Alzheimer’s earlier
Patient advocates applauded the move, and country music legend Glen Campbell, who has Alzheimer’s, appeared on Capitol Hill to urge more research.
Alzheimer’s “has been in the shadows for far too long,” said Eric J. Hall of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The plan “provides solid stepping stones toward substantial change.”
Already, 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s or related dementias. Barring a research breakthrough, those numbers will jump by 2050, when up to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer’s.
There is no cure, and the five medications available today only temporarily ease some symptoms. Finding better ones has been a disappointing slog: Over the last decade, 10 drugs that initially seemed promising failed in late-stage testing, Sperling said.
Moreover, scientists still don’t know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s. The chief suspects are a sticky gunk called beta-amyloid, which makes up the disease’s hallmark brain plaques, and tangles of a protein named tau that clogs dying brain cells. One theory: Amyloid may kick off the disease while tau speeds up the brain destruction.
Previous studies of anti-amyloid drugs have failed, but that new international study will test a different one, in a different way: About 300 people from a huge extended family in Colombia who share a gene mutation that triggers Alzheimer’s in their 40s will test an experimental drug, Genentech’s crenezumab, to see if it delays onset of symptoms. The study also will include some Americans who inherit Alzheimer’s causing gene mutations.
Meanwhile, there are brain-protective steps that anyone can take that just might help, Dr. Carl Cotman of the University of California, Irvine, told Tuesday’s NIH meeting.
“It’s just a well-kept secret,” he said.
The advice:
- Your brain is like a muscle so exercise it. Intellectual and social stimulation help build what’s called “cognitive reserve,” the ability to withstand declines from aging and dementia.
- Getting physical is crucial also. Clogged arteries slow blood flow to the brain, and people who are less active in middle age are at increased risk of Alzheimer’s when they’re older. “Any time your heart is healthier, your brain is healthier,” said Dr. Elizabeth Head of the University of Kentucky.
- Don’t forget diet, she added. The same foods that are heart-healthy are brain-healthy, such as the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.
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Lauran Neergaard covers health and medicine for The Associated Press in Washington