Monday, February 22, 2016

New Treatments for Alzheimer's

Researchers are testing treatments for Alzheimer's Disease that may be able to reverse the symptoms, not only arrest them.

Thank you to Alice Park and Time Magazine for this cover-story article on the progress being made.  With four related articles, the entire February 22, 2016, edition of Time is titled "The Longevity Issue."


It's "sticky, insidious plaques of amyloid" that are the main feature in the brain identifying Alzheimer's Disease (AD).  

Not everyone who has these plaques develops the disease.  

A new drug, LM11A-31, helps to keep the brain cells of mice stronger and counteract AD.  This drug is in Phase II of testing for use with humans and being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The article's accompanying charts and boxed sidebars are great too, so go to a library and look through an actual paper copy of the magazine.

The related articles are:
  • "The new age of aging" by Laura L. Carstensen.
  • "Lessons from long-lived animals" by Alexandra Sifferlin
  • "Eat better, move more, stay positive" by Alexandra Sifferlin
  • "How to afford an extended old age" by Dan Kadlec
Money spent on research is valuable not only to individual persons but to society as a whole: By 2019 the global cost of Alzheimer's care could reach $1 trillion.