Alzheimer’s is one of the most terrible diseases. To witness the personality of friends and relatives dissolve with their memories is terrible to behold. At the back of everyone’s mind as they get older is the worry that it could happen to them. Death is a reality but could it be that the living death of dementia could soon be a thing of the past?
A new treatment has been tried with great success in mice. The drug causes a reversal of the protein deposits that cause dementia. They completely disappear!
If this treatment works on humans (not all animal trials do) it could herald the end of our fear of dementia. What a great thing!
I hate to be a stick in the mud, but I am. I worked with many demented clients over a long career and I’ve seen the diagnoses and the euphemisms come and go, but the idea of a “cure” is a bit of a fantasy when it comes to a mental illness like dementia. Not only is Alzheimer’s a terrible thing, but it’s almost something of a natural process. The pills they’ve been selling the past few decades have very little effect. People remain scared of dementia. I was going to say something else but I forgot.
Ha – early onset!! I don’t think this will do any good for people once it is set in but if it reverses the build-up of protein plaques it could stop the process progressing. There is always hope. Now where did I leave my glasses?