From: mha23x@gmail.com   
      
   Unprecedented Recovery Documented in 10 Early-stage Alzheimer’s Patients   
      
   June 29, 2016  by PHILIP PERRY   
   Article Image   
   Man with Alzheimer's Gets a Shave   
   The human toll is evident. Patients knowing they are going to progressively   
   lose their minds, functionality, and their very lives, must somehow learn to   
   live with the horrifying diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Meanwhile their families   
   shoulder the burden of    
   care, and the anguish of knowing that someday they will no longer be   
   recognized.   
      
   Around 5.4 million Americans currently live with this neurodegenerative   
   disorder. This is the sixth most common cause of death in the U.S. By 2050,   
   13.8 million are projected to have it. Due to the enormous baby boomer   
   generation aging, scientists are in    
   a race to find better detection and treatment options. If not, the disease is   
   predicted to bankrupt Medicare at some point within the next three decades. So   
   the need for effective management is great. There is no way to predict who   
   will get it, though    
   there is a genetic propensity. It’s progressive, and there is no cure.   
      
   Alzheimer’s is caused by the buildup of amyloid beta plaques. With a   
   tar-like consistency, these globules gunk up the brain, choking out neurons   
   and tearing the connections between them apart. These plaques are aided by   
   threats of another protein    
   called tau, which block nutrients from reaching brain cells, starving them.   
   Though today, a diagnosis of this disorder heralds a grim fate, a new study   
   published in the journal Aging has the Alzheimer’s community cautiously   
   optimistic.   
      
      
      
   Alzheimer’s pathogenesis or development.   
      
   Neuroscientists at the Buck Institute on Research and Aging in Novato,   
   California in collaboration with colleagues at UCLA, have successfully halted,   
   and in some cases reversed, the memory loss of 10 early-stage patients.   
   Investigators employed a    
   complete disease management program, involving a combination of therapies and   
   approaches. Dr. Dale Bredesen was a co-author on this study. He called the   
   outcome, “unprecedented.” Landing on the proper management strategy has   
   proven difficult. While    
   lots of treatment options were effective in animal test subjects, few have   
   been successful in human trials. But here, a combined therapy known as The   
   MEND program, has shown remarkable results.   
      
   MEND stands for metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration. This involves a   
   “36-point system” including a certain diet, lots of exercise, medications,   
   vitamins, sleep optimization, and even electrical brain stimulation. Attacking   
   the disease    
   synergistically enhances the drug’s performance, according to Dr. Bredesen.   
   He put it this way, "Imagine having a roof with 36 holes in it, and your drug   
   patched one hole very well - the drug may have worked, a single 'hole' may   
   have been fixed, but    
   you still have 35 other leaks, and so the underlying process may not be   
   affected much."   
      
   Instead, with the MEND system, researchers target many holes at once. Each   
   patient in the study suffered from subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), mild   
   cognitive impairment (MCI), and memory loss. In addition, nine of the patients   
   carried a specific    
   gene for Alzheimer’s, ApoE4. Five of the patients carried two copies of the   
   gene. Their likelihood for developing the condition was 10 to 12 times greater.   
      
      
      
       
      
   Each patient took part in the MEND system. Researchers monitored their cases   
   carefully over the course of two years. In the end, all 10 showed significant   
   improvements in memory, and many patients were moved from the “abnormal”   
   category into “   
   normal” cognitive functioning. One 69-year-old man who was about to shut   
   down his business, was instead able to retake the reigns, and even expand,   
   since he showed so much improvement. Before, he had been unable to remember   
   his work schedule, or recall    
   the faces of those he interacted with. At the onset, his long-term memory   
   recall was a scant three percent. He underwent treatment for 22 months.   
   Afterward, he was tested again. His recall was now 84%.   
      
   Another patient, a 49-year-old woman who had trouble with facial recognition   
   and verbal memory, found that after a few months on MEND, she was able to   
   regain her ability to not only recall words, but to speak a foreign language.   
   In yet another case, a 66-   
   year-old who experienced MCI showed a 12% increase in hippocampus volume,   
   discovered via MRI at the end of the study. The hippocampus is the region of   
   the brain responsible for learning and memory, and where Alzheimer’s   
   originates.   
      
   Researchers say these findings illustrate just how effective the MEND system   
   is in reversing early cognitive decline, even in those who carry genetic   
   markers for the disease. More personalized programs may even enhance the   
   efficacy of Alzheimer’s drugs    
   further, according to Dr. Bredesen. Though heartening, more studies, including   
   those with a larger pool of participants, are needed to confirm these results   
   and learn more about why it is so effective.   
      
      
      
   http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/researchers-mend-the-minds-of-1   
   -early-stage-alzheimers-patients   
      
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