With No Cure For Alzheimer’s Or Dementia, What Should Families Do?

Alzheimer’s patient Dorothy Eckert and her husband John Eckert hold hands at their home in Norristown, Pa. (AP/Matt Rourke)

The number of people in the world with dementia is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050, when the cost for treating patients in the U.S. alone could reach $2 trillion. Those are some of the sobering facts in an article in MIT’s Technology Review.

Science journalist Steven Hall spoke to several doctors in the field about the latest research and hopes for a cure or at least an effective treatment.

MIT Technology Review: The Dementia Plague
Wall Street Journal: France Seeks New Ways to Manage Alzheimer’s Care
Alzheimer’s Association: Choosing a Medicare Drug Plan for Individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease

Guest:

Steven Hall, teaches science journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and writes about the intersection of science and society.

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

Malcolm West

Google: curcumin dimentia amaloid
Ddbergen

I just heard part of your story in the car, but feel the need to comment. My mother died a from Alzheimer’s over the course of more than 10 years so knowledgable about how awful a Alzheimer’s is. I am concerned about my future too. I would hope that Medicare would not pay for a drug that doesn’t work just to offer hope when there is none. I would rather all of those $400 per month go to research until we find something that does help. We ha
Bog02210

We
should pursue, push, and educate to instigate a best practices approach to this
disease. We must approach this disease holistically- the effect of our society,
from community to nation IS impacted by Alzheimer’s/Dementia lack of holistic
view. How much Medicare
expenditures could be saved if this disease was managed better? Today we deal
from crisis to crisis, and symptom to symptom- Not realizing the impact of the disease to all of us.
Angela

My beloved mother in law began to decline rapidly about 11 years ago and we prepared ourselves for the worst (leaving pans on a lit stove, urinating in public, not dressing appropriately for the weather, repeatedly asking the same questions, severe decline in short term memory). However, to our surprise, once we moved her from her home to a nursing facility, she improved markedly and has held steady ever since. She is now turning 92 and, while her memory has declined slowly over the last decade, she is still, more or less, herself, and she still remembers even the grandchildren. We always assumed that it was the Alzheimer’s drugs. Now I wonder: could it have been either that (1) Once she was receiving nursing care, she was regularly receiving her blood pressure and diabetes medication, and thus better controlling those conditions? Are there studies examining a link between either of those conditions and dementia? or (2) In the nursing facility, she was receiving much more social stimulation and attention than she was alone at home after the death of her husband? Has this link been studied?
- Guest
  
  A newer theory is that Alzheimer’s is a form of diabetes of the brain but it is constantly overshadowed by the amyloid plaque theory. I think there are also recent studies that Telmisartan and similar drugs commonly prescribed for hypertension might help too. Also there was a study that blood transfusions in mice helped with memory. These would all seem to indicate something to do with blood.
donnar22

Please look into coconut oil to help with alzheimer’s disease. A friend sent me a you tube video about Dr. Mary E. Newport whose husband suffered from the disease. She began giving him coconut oil and he improved greatly – mentally, emotionally and physically. She wrote a book about it called “Alzheimer’s Disease – what if there was a cure?” It’s something to consider.
- Keed
  
  This report of Dr. Newport must be several years old.
  My question, is it possible for Dr. Newport to give us an updated report on her treatment using coconut oil on her husband.
  I get several emails from the Alzheimer society, and have yet to see any reports or the use of coconut oil in the treatment of Altzheimer’s/Dementia.
  My dear wife Jaqueline, diagnosed in Aug. 2006, is now in a care home.
  Unfortunately, these patients are subject to drugs that are not even providing induvidual medicimal help, but are a behaviour controling means.
  This issue can be is of serious concern, and can be accessed on Google, “Crisis behind closed doors”
  Kees.
Lisa McDade

The question should be, “What should the NIH do??” PLEASE FUND MY HUSBAND’s K GRANT! He is a clinician physician researcher at University of Pittsburgh, and is trying to get funding for a study to determine physiological changes before any symptoms of dementia start. Unfortunately, there is so much subjectivity to reviewing and accepting grant applications. He is so gifted and talented, but the research road is hard and long.
Sherri Harden

I have worked in the health care and long term care fields and provided training for professional direct care providers, families and those with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. I was also Program Director for the NH chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association responsible for education and training of those segments of the population as well. During these experiences, I watched the results of research by drug companies and the impact of these findings on those with dementia – an advisory- be suspect of drug company research findings and any research funded by any of the large pharmaceutical companies – it is more prevalent than the general population is aware. These drugs were hailed as a wonder drug that would reverse symptoms and prolong the level of higher functioning for those diagnosed. I have had many conversations with families and have interacted with those prescribed the “Alzheimer’s drugs” and support the claim that these drugs have no long term efficacy as part of a treatment plan. I have also watched the Alzheimer’s Association eliminate education and training programs for caregivers – family and professional – those with a diagnosis and the general public as well. Their focus is primarily on fund raising and financial gain. With the current numbers of those diagnosed – and we are only talking about those diagnosed -( there is a current feeling that the numbers are larger than those published due to a suspected population of misdiagnoses and silent unknown sufferers) there will be a groundswell of need for appropriate dementia care. Appropriate dementia care and education is crucial for the quality of life of those diagnosed as well as those who are in the many different iterations of caregiving roles. The understanding of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease through the different lobes of the brain and resulting changes in cognition and functioning is key to maintaining higher functioning for a longer period of time for the person diagnosed and the prevention of episodes of physical assaults aimed at family and caregivers – professsional and family.
http://profile.yahoo.com/OP7FMM4XAJF3QDWFBJPEQ76K7I Bruce

By no means am I remotely expert on dementia. However, when my wife’s grandmother began to exhibit problems with dementia, we found that diet had a huge impact on her lucidity and in staving off some of the problems that otherwise affected her. She still had to deal with memory failures but, even they sometimes seemed less of an impact for a while. Again, this was not a cure but, it certainly made her last couple of years far more functional. Though I didn’t hear the entire story this morning, I never once heard mention of diet as a possible effective treatment in at least some cases or for some forms of dementia.
aurora1956

At some point in this interview Robin asks Steven Hall why dementia is on the rise, and he replies that it is probably because we are all living longer. It is disheartening to me that otherwise smart, educated people continue to perpetuate this myth. Any inquiry into human life span will show a very modest increase in age at death. The increase in “average life span” is due to improvements in infant mortality and survival of childhood diseases since the discovery of immunizations against mumps, measles, etc. Just take a walk through a cemetery, even a 19th century one, and you will see that just as many people died in their 70′s, 80′s and 90′s then as now. Why is this important? Because we must start to look at something else for causing the dementia plague, if there is one.
Guest

Are the amyloid plaques the cause or merely a symptom? Could they not be a defense mechanism of the body? Truth is no one knows. If any of the alternate theories are proved true, the medical establishment has been getting in the way of possible treatments by foisting next to useless recommendations on everyone and scaring people into avoiding possibly beneficial paths. Try coconut oil. Try turmeric (curcumin). Try low carbohydrate diets. Some of these alternative therapies seem to have positive effects for epilepsy in children that’s been known since the 1930s and there are stories too of them helping in dementia and autism cases.