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Adu And Not Adieu

Jun 05, 2015
by Caroline Miller
adu, Alzheimer's disease, Erika Fry, Memory Thief, new demntia treatment
7 Comments

I’ve had a new doctor for the past year, a young woman in her thirties.  My first medical exam with her turned up no interesting ailments or complaints, so this year she decided to expand her search by giving me one of those crude, mental fitness tests.  Apparently, I passed because she shrugged, looking a little bored, and told me to return in a year for my next physical.

As I left the doctor’s office, I almost felt I should apologize for being uninteresting. Still, I know my good health can’t go on forever and I admit, my greatest fear is mental decline.  At the moment there are no effective treatments for the various forms of dementia.  Alzheimer’s, for example, is number 6 among the top 10 killers in the United States and with the burgeoning aging population, the number of deaths from the disease are bound to increase.  By 2025, those afflicted will balloon from the current 5.3 million to 8 million. (“Memory Thief,” by Erika Fry, May 2015, Fortune, pg.82)

 I’ll do what I can to protect my health, but as the cause of dementia is unknown, a sense of futility haunts me.  Carrying a flashlight to hunt Snipes is as practical as worrying about a disease for which there is no defense, I know; but logic holds little sway over my fears.

Drug companies have been working on the problem of dementia with an almost religious zeal.  For them a treatment represents a financial bonanza.   Medicare costs to manage the disease are projected to hit  $1.1 trillion dollars by 2050. (Ibid, pg. 82)   

 As grim as the data seems, the tide of research over the past 20 years has recently turned.  Someone suggested a new approach.  Instead of studying those afflicted with the illness, why not study the elderly who are symptom free?  That research has led to a promising discovery:  adu, an antibody derived “from genetic information expressed in the immune cells of those elderly donors.” (Ibid pg. 84)  So far, test results which include adu in the treatment of dementia have proved to be more than satisfactory.  Some are calling the antibody a medical  breakthrough.  But to prove it, new studies must follow, working backwards from humans to mice. (Ibid pg. 84)

 Still there’s excitement in pharmaceutical-land.  Some researchers have predicted a drug for Alzheimer’s may  be on the market by 2018. (Ibid pg. 86)  That’s good news for the elderly, like me, who hope to keep their wits about them for at least another 3 years.  What I want, more than anything, is to go on boring to my doctor.

medical researcher

Courtesy of www.city-connect.org

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7 Comments
  1. Judy Farrell June 5, 2015 at 2:32 pm Reply
    Fascinating presentation on today's NPR Science Friday. I was driving so was unable to take notes; however, here's a brief summary which should be available on the NPR website. The chief researcher on sleep at University of CA has learned that regular restful sleep cleanses the brain of the beta "something" ( I think amyloid) deposits on the brain. He is finding that sleep plays a critical part in prevention and improvement of Alzheimers....and it is more influenced by quality of sleep than amount of sleep. I recently was under the care of a sleep therapist with the intent of discontinuing pharmaceutical sleep aids and reversing a long history of insomnia. Following his instructions, I now sleep like a babe, hopefully just in time since I'm almost 80 and so far, so good!
    • Caroline Miller June 5, 2015 at 2:45 pm Reply
      Thank you Judy for your comments. I wrote a blog on this topic in Dec. 9, 2013. To fill in what you heard on NPR here's the gist of what I wrote: Everyone feels better after a good night’s rest. But research has learned a bit more. During the sleep cycle, the brain uses less energy and so the size of its cells shrink. The wider corridors that are created allow more cerebrospinal fluid to circulate which, in turn, washes away cellular waste, largely beta-amyloid, the plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease. (“Sleep Washes the Brain,” The Week, November 8, 2013, pg. 19) discovery “suggests that adequate sleep may be important in slowing the progress of brain damage.” (Ibid 19
  2. Pamela June 5, 2015 at 11:32 pm Reply
    Very interesting about abu, Caroline! Thank you for this information. Your keen, sharp mind rings loudly and clearly through your blog and comments on Facebook. Succumbing to dementia also is one of my biggest fears, as there are already signs for me that my thinking has at least slowed.
    • Caroline Miller June 6, 2015 at 6:52 am Reply
      Happily "slowing" is not dementia. You just have more memory files to sort through than a teenager. And thank you for your encouragement.
  3. Pamela June 5, 2015 at 11:35 pm Reply
    Judy Farrell, I would be so eager to hear about what you learned from the sleep researcher. I have tried just about everything short of sleeping pills and a sleep center. My fitbit tells me I average about 5 hours 3 minutes of sleep a night, and I wake between 11-22 times a night!!! I'm just coming off of a week where I only broke 5 hours of sleep once. L-Tryptophan, Valerian root, magnesium, kava kava, sleep teas, sleep herbs, nothing consistently helps.
  4. S. L. Stoner June 6, 2015 at 8:03 am Reply
    Because of a family member, I have been researching. Perhaps now that marijuana is going to be legal, research can began. Below is an excerpt from one study, but there are others that are equally promising...including the ability to prevent and halt the disease once it begins. Another study is adding evidence to the case for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease with the compounds in cannabis. Research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease this September “strongly suggest that THC [the main active ingredient in marijuana] could be a potential therapeutic treatment option for Alzheimer’s disease through multiple functions and pathways.”
    • Caroline Miller June 6, 2015 at 8:19 am Reply
      Now if only some discovered that chocolate was a benefit in weight loss.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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