- NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - The US healthcare system is not ready for the epidemic of Alzheimer's
disease that will hit in the next decade as baby boomers age, experts warn.
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- "The boomers are going to be the healthiest [group]
of people ever to hit their 70s and 80s," Dr. Steven T. DeKosky, director
of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
said here Thursday at a briefing sponsored by the American Medical Association.
Ironically, this will mean more and more people will live long enough to
get Alzheimer's.
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- There are currently 34.8 million Americans 65 years and
older, 4.3 million of whom are 85 or older. Dementia strikes 3% of people
aged 65 to 74, 19% of those 75 to 84, and up to 47% of people 85 and older.
The number of people with Alzheimer's is expected to triple over the next
30 to 40 years.
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- "This disease would break Medicare and Medicaid
all by itself," DeKosky said. So, he added, strategies for diagnosing
Alzheimer's early and treating or even preventing the disease are urgently
needed. Delaying the disease course by 5 years could cut its prevalence
in half, he noted, and delaying it by 10 years could potentially wipe it
out.
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- But the current pace of research will not keep up with
demand, according to DeKosky. Studies of preventive therapies currently
under way will begin producing results in 2005. DeKosky recommends that
several parallel trials of potential therapies be launched as soon as possible.
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- Training the immune system to sweep up amyloid plaques,
the abnormal protein fragments that collect in the brains of Alzheimer's
patients, has been found to be effective in mice. Preliminary trials in
humans have found this approach is safe. Other promising avenues include
drugs called neurotrophic factors, which prevent nerve cell death, and
drugs that prevent the formation of fibrillary tangles in the brain, DeKosky
said.
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- But effective treatments are available today, Dr. Rachelle
S. Doody of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Baylor College of
Medicine in Houston, Texas, emphasized.
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- Drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors can delay the
progress of Alzheimer's, she explained, and vitamin E has been shown to
delay the loss of function. Therapy with anti-inflammatory medications
and other antioxidants also has potential.
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- "The treatments we have now do more than we ever
thought they would do," she said. But fewer than half of patients
with Alzheimer's are ever offered such treatment, she pointed out.
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- And while therapy is currently offered only after patients
have established disease, Doody said, experts are now able to recognize
a condition called mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that represents, for
many, the early stages of Alzheimer's.
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- Among people with MCI, 15% will develop Alzheimer's each
year. Research is under way to see if treating these individuals with certain
medications will delay or prevent this progression.
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- Effective treatment is also available for Alzheimer's
symptoms. Psychosis can, in some patients, be treated with antipsychotic
drugs, Doody noted. And antidepressants may help some Alzheimer's patients.
Incontinence--a leading reason for institutionalization--can often be managed
by scheduling bathroom times and using other non-drug approaches.
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- Soon, Doody said, it will be possible to manage Alzheimer's
in the same way that heart disease is treated--by recognizing genetic and
environmental risk factors and modifying these risk factors.
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- But DeKosky noted that while we have standard ways to
determine a person's heart disease risk--such as blood pressure--there
is still no simple, cheap test for Alzheimer's risk.
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- Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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- Comment
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- From Gayle
leaflady@leaflady.org
6-13-1
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- Hi, Jeff,
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- Reading through this article it was interesting to me
to note that there is no focus on prevention. There is no focus on finding
the cause either.
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- I was interested in the fact that the researchers find
a great benefit from vitamin E, yet our government is pushing to limit
access to therapeutic doses of this beneficial vitamin under Codex. Of
course there is little money for the pharmaceutical interests in treating
with vitamins ( i.e., orthomolecular treatments).
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- The vitamin E issue also interests me from the perspective
of another article you have up on the relationship between air pollution
and heart attack. Vitamin E is exceptional for the healthy heart, and
healthy lungs. You don't see much effort to get the air cleaned up, and
the current president seems to be heading backwards with the policy to
stall under the guise that "the economy cannot afford to clean up
the air". So it goes.
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- Now for starter's, fluoridated water impedes thyroid
function. At least 30% to 67% of all people with the Alzheimer's diagnosis,
depending on which study you accept, show undiagnosed thyroid malfunction.
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- Most Alzheimer's patients are placed on Haldol, a wonderful
psychotropic drug that is based in fluoride, and enjoys a delightful side
effect called Tardive Dyskinesia.
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- Needless to say there is big money in Alzheimer's treatment,
and the drugs that go along with the warehousing of our older citizens.
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- Many years ago, a study done at Norristown (PA) State
Hospital, geriatric unit, found that malnutrition was more a cause of the
aberrant behavior of the patients, than actual psychosis. Malnutrition,
of course, can lead to diminished B complex vitamin intake and absorption,
and dis-orders like Beri-Beri. Beri-Beri is a B vitamin (a brain and nervous
system nutrient) deficiency with all the signs and symptoms of - you guessed
it - psychoses and dementia.
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- Thanks again for letting me throw in my two cents,
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