If it’s from watching a movie to actually knowing a family member with Alzheimer’s, you know the effect it has on everyone around them. Alzheimer’s affects many Americans today and is known to be the sixth leading cause of death. The cure is still unknown and is a disease that causes problems with memory and behavior. The symptoms will first begin off slow but then progressively get worse over time. Although many people develop it at an older age, it is not a part of aging. With no current cure, studies show that they can temporarily slow the memory loss symptoms and improve their quality of memory. Studies still continue but it became interesting to see that we may be able to actually reverse it.
Researchers are seeing that memory loss is a major concern. Today, the disease affects 30 million people around the world and 5.4 million Americans. In 35 years, scientists believe that 160 million people will be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. With these high numbers, billions of dollars are spent to find a cure.
The University California, Los Angles, conducted a study that creates a success to this theory. Nine out of 10 patients saw symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease revers after they were done with a program. During this program, they were increasing their level of Vitamin D, used DHA supplements, and participated in fasting to normalize their levels of insulin. The patients were mostly between the ages of 55 to 75 and saw that their memory began to improve. The study saw 90% success as the one woman who did not see success was in a later stage of dementia.
This study was the first small study that was actually done on humans and will require many larger studies to see the exact relationship. An experiment that involves injections was taken place over a 2 to 3 week span. It was found successful when histone deacetylase inhibitor was injected into mice. It was found to not alter the memory in normal mice but did cause effects in mice that contained DNA from an unrelated organism known as transgenic. Also injections of sodium valproate and sodium butyrate brought back the memory within these mice. Testing on these mice showed that treatment towards the mice’s memory correlates to the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
The vaccine is now given to four different hospitals in Britain, who were diagnosed with the disease early on in their life. The vaccines first started on the mice and now are thought to trigger antibodies to protect the body from disease. The British patients began this trial a year ago and will soon be able to know the success of the vaccine within the next couple of months. The vaccine is given four times over 6 months. Science continues to build these holes that’s human’s are forgetting and hope to soon rebuild their memory.
The thouoght that overflowing the body with Vitamin D could cure or at least treat Alzhimers is very facinating indeed. What exactly does Vitamin D do that may attribute to the cure? From what I know Vitamin D is used to build calcium and phosphorous things that are associated with bones. Furthermore, I wish you would put a live link of the “study” you mentioned that UCLA conducted. It seems from a glance that it is a pretty small sample (10 people) so is it really representative of the whole population? Alzheimer is a neurological disease that leads to the degeneration of certain tissues in the brain. I proposed a different cure in which we don’t save dying tissue but rather build or implant new tissue. Does the overflow of Vitamin D do this? Does it cause the brain tissue to regenerate or does it cause the already living tissue to strengthen and do more? Lastly, an experiment that I hope will be conducted is gradual and/or rapid doses of Vitamin D. Does gradual doses of Vitamin D over time help because the brain will absorb it better? Or does the brain need as much Vitamin D immediately to save as much tissue as possible? Anyways, great article and I hope you write more.
very interesting blog post– My grandma actually passed away with alzheimers and I always wondered if and when a cure would be found. Although yyou go into detail about the affect the drug has on the brain, I am curious as to how it works and what part of the brain it specifically works with when trying to bring back short term and long term memories. Does the injection work with both? Does it focus on implicit or procedural memories? There are many kinds of memories and its important to distinguish which you are talking about to better understand the capability of the shot. Overall very interesting post though!