The cause and the cure...
(Now, if he could just remember where he put the glass...)
Posted on 02/21/2016 5:33:18 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A scientist whose major breakthroughs have emerged from studying the brains of Irish families says we are only five to 10 years away from a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
In a recent interview with the Irish Times, Professor Tim Lynch, currently with the Dublin Neurological Institute at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, recounted the discovery he made while working in New York almost 20 years ago, which changed the course of his research.
In 1994, Lynch was part of a team studying frontotemporal dementia in an Irish American family at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The team discovered that the mutation of the tau protein is responsible for that particular kind of dementia, which occurs in the brain's frontal lobes (behind your forehead) or temporal lobes (behind your ears). One in five cases of dementia is caused by frontotemporal dementia, which is particularly devastating as it robs people of their personalities.
Lynch and his team were successfully able to predict where in the stem loop of the tau gene the mutations would occur over time.
According to the Irish Times, "This discovery changed the science and direction of dementia research across the globe, including work on Alzheimer’s disease, because the tau protein is also abnormal in the brains of Alzheimer patients."
Until two years ago, all of their predictions regarding the locations of the mutations had been proven correct except for one.
A 44-year-old farmer with a family history of neurodegenerative disease, which had been diagnosed as Alzheimer's, came to the Dublin Neurological Institute, where Lynch, back in Ireland by then, was working.
He was suffering from short-term memory loss and was experiencing a number of unsettling personality changes including apathy and impulsivity.
As Lynch told the Irish Times, "The patient had a family history of neurodegenerative diseases that had been previously labeled as Alzheimer's but the clinical pattern was peculiar."
"I had been waiting for something like this for over 15 years, to complete the circle that started with the initial research in the US," he added.
As it turned out, the very tau mutation Lynch had been unable to locate two decades earlier was the mutation causing brain degeneration in this family.
"The result of this research will be used to bring new awareness to this particular field of neurology and result in new interest and funding for the development of much-needed novel treatments," he said.
He expressed confidence that a cure for dementia is on the hear horizon. "We can now stop multiple sclerosis in its tracks using biologic agents, and we hope to be doing the same with dementia in the next 10 years."
Interestingly, he also noted that Ireland is a particularly ideal base for studying neurological disorders because the population has largely remained genetically homogenous and the typically large size of Irish families makes it possible to study the genetic factors behind brain conditions.
An article about the tau mutation by Lynch and his colleagues appeared in the recent issue of the Oxford journal "Brain."
I’ve read the theory on it being another type of inflammation, related to heart disease and diabetes.
They have been saying that about Diabetes for the last 45 years.
How long will it take for the medical profession to find a no-fail cure for neuropathy? That would be a Nobel Prize candidacy.
(Now, if he could just remember where he put the glass...)
In the mean time we can do a few things that might help:
Mind Diet that appears to lower the risk of Alzheimers:
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/13639/20150323/mind-diet-may-protect-against-alzheimers.htm
Walking a mile or so several times a week.
Walking Can Lower Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
www.ingalls.org/Alzheimers-Walking.aspx
Walking Can Lower Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease For years, we’ve been told there’s little we can do to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease, but new research shows we can.
Brain exercises can reduce dementia and Alzheimer’s.
http://www.alzheimersprevention.org/4-pillars-of-prevention/exercise-and-brain-aerobics
Daily low dose of aspirin for better mental health.
An aspirin a day could help stop dementia say scientists ...
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516010
An aspirin a day could help stop dementia say scientists as ... to suggest aspirin may prevent ... benefits of a low dose of aspirin outweigh ...
Low to moderate alcohol consumption. Like good Californa red or white wines or a microbrew.
Remain Socially Active | Alzheimer’s Association
www.alz.org › We Can Help › Brain Health
Remain Socially Active | Alzheimer ... Research shows that people who are regularly engaged in social interaction ...
Exactly. I heard this 5-10 years ago and it’s almost too late for my dad.
Guess I’ll get it when I get my flying car.
No. That has been ruled out. We don’t have more alzheimers because people are living longer. It’s a myth. My grandparents all lived into their late 80s or 90s. My parents have Alzheimer’s, both of them, and had it by age 80.
We aren’t living that much longer in the last 20 years but there are so many more cases of Alzheimer’s. That is not the sole reason there is more neurodegeneration. There is far more when you add in all the ALS and Parkinson’s and other chronic neurodegenerative diseases in late life.
There is something in our environment, something we are doing, that is causing it. I personally suspect plastics, as the 80-90 year olds today were the first who dealt with a lot of plastics in their food and skin. But I don’t know; it could be something else.
You lost me at “famed irish scientist.”
Well, both my parents have it. Four years ago, when my dad for sure had it, but people were still saying m was just “over stressed” caring for dad, I had one of those healthy check ups where they do tons of blood tests. When I was sitting in the doctor’s office and the doc was going over the test results, she said “Well, you don’t have the Alzheimer’s gene.” I didn’t even know they tested me for it. Both my parents have it, but I just don’t believe the huge amount of it today is from a genetic connection - it can’t be.
And when both sides of a couple have it, it really makes me think about their long lives together, maybe exposed at the same time to the same things. Plastic cookware, nonstick, Tupperware, plastic in microwaves, the same foods, lotions or other products, laundry products that enter the bloodstream, whatever.
A quick test, which ‘they say’ is pretty accurate indicator for Alzheimer’s is to have the person draw a clock- dial clock- round- people with Alzheimer’s draw the numbers weird- often in a straight line, or going outside the clock or in wrong order
Also have them put a specific time in when they draw the clock- people with Alzheimer’s or early Alzheimer’s can’t do it correctly-
Make sure they can’t see a clock when they draw theirs though- (check for watch too)
The idea is to have them draw it from memory
This is a pretty standard early indicator test-
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