Has a treatment for Alzheimer's been sitting on pharmacy shelves for decades? Scientists have two possible candidates (pain, infection)
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A promising series of early studies is highlighting two well known medicine cabinet standbys—gemfibrosil, an old-school cholesterol-lowering drug, and retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative. Gemfibrosil, is sold as Lopid and while it's still used, it is not widely prescribed. Doctors now prefer to prescribe statins to lower cholesterol. Retinoic acid has been used in various formulations to treat everything from acne to psoriasis to cancer.
The two drugs are being studied for their robust impact on the brain and a potential new role that could one day thrust them into fighting what is now an incurable brain disease. Both medications have an uncanny capability to zero in on the brain's astrocytes, cells that originally got their name because they look like stars. But astrocytes are intimately involved in a key process that progressively—and insidiously—destroys the brain.
BigPharma squashes and smears any cheap, safe and effective treatments when they have expensive and unsafe treatments for the same thing. Buyer beware.
An exciting case series was published in 2012. Three Alzheimer’s patients treated with turmeric, and their symptoms declined, along with the burden on their caregivers. Let me show you what these data mean in real lives. Case number one: 83 year old woman, started losing her memory, getting disoriented. Then she started having problems taking care of herself, wandering aimlessly, incontinent. After the turmeric though, her agitation, apathy, anxiety, and irritability were relieved and she had less accidents. Furthermore she began to laugh again, and sing again, and knit again. After taking turmeric for more than a year she came to recognize her family and now lives a peaceful life without a significant behavioral or psychological symptom of dementia.
Case 2 was similar, but with hallucinations and delusions and depression, which appeared relieved by turmeric. She began to recognize her family again and now lives in a peacefully serene manner. And the third case, similar as well, including an improvement in cognition. This is the first demonstration that turmeric may be effective and safe for the treatment of the behavioral and psychological symptom of dementia in Alzheimer’s disease patients. They call it a drug, but it’s just a spice you can walk into any grocery store and buy for a few bucks. They were giving people like a teaspoon a day, which comes out to be about 15 cents
I got switched from Gemfibrozil to Cimvastatin (I forget how to spell them). I had no idea there was such excruciating pain as a statin drug caused me until I found out what was causing my agony. It might help the brain but it landed me on a walker. My wife was on a statin drug and sure didn't help her Alzheimer's any. She died as a result of a fall in a Memory CARE facility.
Be careful self-medicating with turmeric or any other "natural" herb. Herbal medicines can hurt/heal depending on how they are used.
I used turmeric for a year to treat my diagnosed stomach condition because I had read that turmeric could help. I took a daily dose that seemed safe but what I discovered over the year was that it calmed my stomach inflammation but really slowed down any other healing such as skin breaks and they could get infection staying open so long. So I quit it and went back to RX meds.
Turmeric needs studies to become a useful medicine but since no one can patent it who will pay for the studies?
I used turmeric for a year to treat my diagnosed stomach condition because I had read that turmeric could help. I took a daily dose that seemed safe
What was the daily dose you were taking?
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