Scientists fight Alzheimer’s earlier

[Guest FourAces]

Alzheimer is one of the cruelest diseases of our time. What it does to its victims is beyond disturbing. Anytime I see a little light in the fight I like to highlight it.

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A fundamental shift is underway in how scientists look for ways to ward off the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease — by testing possible therapies in people who don’t show many symptoms, before too much of the brain is destroyed.

The most ambitious attempt is an international study announced Tuesday that will track whether an experimental drug can stall the disease in people who appear healthy but are genetically destined to get a type of Alzheimer’s that runs in the family. If so, it would be promising evidence that maybe regular Alzheimer’s is preventable, too.

A second study will test whether a nasal spray that sends insulin to the brain helps people with very early memory problems, based on separate research linking diabetes to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.

The new focus emerges as the Obama administration adopts the first national strategy to fight the growing Alzheimer’s epidemic — a plan to have effective treatments by 2025.

“We are at an exceptional moment,” with more important discoveries about Alzheimer’s in the last few months than in recent years, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said Tuesday.

The remainder of the article is here, http://www.washingto...3PSU_story.html

[Guest EXPAT]

I have a friend who is 83 and I see signs of this but he won't acknowledge it. It's such a devastating disease. I hope this research brings some results.