I sure hope this is legit and not some hoax.
Posted on 01/26/2008 4:44:15 PM PST by fella
The helmet that could turn back the symptoms of Alzheimer's By DAVID DERBYSHIRE - More by this author »
Last updated at 10:47am on 25th January 2008
An experimental helmet which scientists say could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within weeks of being used is to be tried out on patients.
The strange-looking headgear - which has to be worn for ten minutes every day - bathes the brain with infra-red light and stimulates the growth of brain cells.
Its creators believe it could reverse the symptoms of dementia - such as memory loss and anxiety - after only four weeks.
Alzheimer's disease charities last night described the treatment as "potentially life- changing" - but stressed that the research was still at the very early stages.
lead researcher at the University of Sunderland Dr Abdel Ennaceur and Durham University s Dr Paul Chazot are pictured with Dr Gordon Dougal and a prototype cognitive helmet
Around 700,000 Britons have dementia, with around 500,000 suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The helmet is the creation of Dr Gordon Dougal, a director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham.
It follows a study at the University of Sunderland which found infra-red light can reverse memory loss in mice.
Dr Dougal claims that only ten minutes under the hat a day is enough to have an effect.
"Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay - this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it," he said.
Low level infra-red red is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull.
"The implications of this research at Sunderland are enormous - so much so that in the future we could be able to affect and change the rate at which our bodies age," he said.
"We age because our cells lose the desire to regenerate and repair themselves. This ultimately results in cell death and decline of the organ functions - for the brain resulting in memory decay and deterioration in general intellectual performance.
"But what if there was a technology that told the cells to repair themselves and that technology was something as simple as a specific wavelength of light?"
The study at Sunderland found that exposing middle-aged mice to infrared light for six minutes a day for ten days improved their performance in a three-dimensional maze. In the human trials, due to start this summer, the scientists will use levels of infra-red that occur naturally in sunlight.
Neuroscientist Paul Chazot, who helped carry out the research, said: "The results are completely new - this has never been looked at before."
An Alzheimer's Society spokesman said: "A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people. We look forward to further research to determine whether this technique could help improve cognition in humans."
It’s hard to keep count, advancing age and all, but isn’t this the third thread on this thing?
I believe we have a weakness for anything that resembles a tinfoil hat.
I sure hope this is legit and not some hoax.
I searched the title and alzheimemer’s and got no hits. So your point is?
Probably no chance of hits, none whatsoever.
lol
Speak for yourself.
quacks
Hmmmm.....actually, it looks like a tin foil fez!
Did you mean “Alzheimer’s”?
Sure. - sounds reasonable.
Slytherin!
So... Perhaps ditching that baseball cap in the summer isn’t such a stupid idea...
It is. He was a Shriner in a previous incarnation and found out that the foil version improved his memory to the point where he can now remember things from back when Ron Paul first landed in "Area 51".
All levity aside, Alzheimer's has impacted my family.
It would be easy just to dwell on things over which you have no control.
I think sometimes we look on the light side of things just to keep all those negatives from winning in a shut-out.
I find this very unlikely. I need unbiased empirical evidence to be convinced. Infra-red light does not have adequate energy to penetrate bone unless it is of sufficient intensity that it would cause burns.
And 99% of them are liberal socialists.
Among them Prime Minister Brown and the pseudo Prince of Wales
People are maroons.
This has been explained on other threads. There is a narrow band of infra red waves that penetrate up to 3 cm. It’s on one of the other threads somewhere.
lead researcher at the University of Sunderland Dr Abdel Ennaceur and Durham University s Dr Paul Chazot are pictured with Dr Gordon Dougal and a prototype cognitive helmet
RW I understand your point.
Actually, it's quite likely. Body tissues are actually somewhat transparent at particular wavelengths (even bone). Many of these "spectral windows" are in the deep red and infra-red wavelength regions. A well-known application is the treatment of infant jaundice by blue light (breaks down bilirubin into albumin). Blue doesn't penetrate all that deeply, but still sufficiently to reach the circulating blood in and under the skin.
So the ability of particular wavelengths to penetrate to various depths in the body is very well established. Many of these "spectral windows" are in the deep red and infra-red wavelength regions. The efficacy of the treatment for the specific purpose....?????
Not true. See post 22.
Yes, a magic ray that hits you for a few minutes a day can reverse a terminal disease. Sure. Sounds reasonable. Thing is, radiation therapy is effective in fighting cancer. It's been refined through a lot of false leads and a lot of tests and trials.
I'm not buying the hype for the Alzheimer's helmet, but it's worth pursuing. I won't accept it uncritically, but I won't reject it out of hand. If you told me that there was some magic substance derived from tree bark that could relieve headache and heart attacks, I'd think you were nuts. And yet we have aspirin.
Someone should send one of those to John McCain.
But if you order now, we throw in OxyClean as well.
Once an individual reaches adulthood, brain cells are no longer produced. This helmet can not “grow brain cells”.
The light may stimulate circulation to other non damaged areas in the brain, but it can not grow cells.
It is nuts.
Well, alright then, I wonder if it will cure baldness.
They either were research curing baldness and stumbled on the Alzheimers link or this helmet has a very undesirable side effect. :=)
We’ve gotten other smaller critters to regrow brain cells recently. In the future, who knows?
I'll wait for a clinical trial before taking your word, it you don't mind too much.
Too true. Sometimes you have to laugh, otherwise you'd waste all your time crying and moaning about something over which you have absolutely no control, yet.
We lost my Mama in 2004, 5 years after her doctor had 'diagnosed' Alzheimer's. Thankfully, she died of congestive heart failure before her mind was completely gone, but even with the minor effects of Alzheimer's it was painful to watch this formerly very independent, active woman just turn inward because she didn't want anyone to know what was happening to her. Thankfully, at the end, she still knew all her kids, and even most of her grandkids, but she was kinda fuzzy on the great-grands.
I wouldn't call Alzheimer's a terminal disease. Folks with Alzheimer's actually die from some other cause, it's just that Alzheimer's usually strips them of their social selves long before that happens.
SuzieQ, I know what you are talking about. I have dealt (on a very close and personal level) with Alzheimer’s Disease. It is so many things: sad, hopeless, tiring, frightening, frustrating, painful, hurtful, and every once in a while, hopeful.
Do they make a jock strap version?
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