Patients and their family members have been bringing me clippings from that famous medical journal, “The Wall Street Journal,” asking me if it’s true that Alzheimer’s research is now focused on something called “tau.” As I wrote in an earlier blog post, the leading hypothesis until very recently was that “amyloid,” the stuff in the brain plaques in Alzheimer’s, was the cause of the disease due to toxic effects on brain cells. I also noted … Read More
What if we could predict who would one day go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease? There is no definitive test for Alzheimer’s disease. Neurologists and others who specialize in treating dementia are very accurate in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease once symptoms have begun. Memory or other thinking problems and performance on different kinds of cognitive tests give a good indication of whether someone has dementia or another condition that can cause memory problems. Once a diagnosis … Read More
A few months ago, experts were talking about the next generation of “disease-modifying” drugs that were expected to help treat Alzheimer’s disease by attacking amyloid plaque in the brain. In fact, they were arguing that any newly written treatment guidelines were likely to be quickly outdated by the advent of new, powerful drugs. Drug companies were also optimistic, developing all kinds of “anti-amyloid” drugs that were expected to fundamentally alter the course of the disease. “Amyloid” … Read More
