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Kendall said she has seen people shy away from picking up Alzheimer's
brochures and other material at community health fairs.
"I
believe from the bottom of my heart that they think if they know about it,
they're going to get it. This is scary. Your
memories are what make you, and if you lose those, you lose your identity to
some degree. People know the end
result of Alzheimer's Disease. You're
not going to get it by touching the literature," she said.
Doctors and researchers can determine, to some extent, who's at risk for
developing the disease.
"First of all, the risk for Alzheimer's dementia includes being
human," said Dr. Fernando Benfield, medical director of New Leaf Senior
Care at Sycamore Shoals Hospital in Elizabethon.
"Being old is another risk. Having
family history is a risk. Having
faulty genes is a risk. Head
trauma. All the factors that are quite important include diabetes
mellitus, smoking, high cholesterol, and hypertension.
There is a question as to whether or not some forms of depression are
risk factors."
There is also genetic testing available, Kendall said.
It's kind of like other things that you can get genetic testing in regard
to. Even though someone may be more
susceptible to Alzheimer's based upon certain markers, we still don't know what
flips the switch. Someone may have
an abnormality of chromosome 21, which is indictor of early onset Alzheimer's
but not develop it," she said. "They
also look at family history. They
still have not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is going to run in
family lines, but we see a lot of families where it does run.
They do believe because of the fact that chromosome 19 is the cholesterol
transporter, that cholesterol could play a part in the development of the
amyloid plaque that is the marker of Alzheimer's."
Current therapies only treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's.
Current research is trying to target the cause.
Nine new drugs are in Phase III clinical trials, the final stage before
the government decides whether a drug is safe and useful.
An additional 23 are in Phase II. These
drugs are designed to attach the disease directly and prevent further damage.
"They're trying to find out what causes it, and we really don't know
that except that it's genetically loaded," Turnbull said, "so if you
have one parent who has developed Alzheimer's your odds are greater than the
rest of the population; two parents and your odds are very much greater than the
rest of the population."
"We have no idea why the brain starts to deteriorate--and we're
still puzzled about it. We have
medicines to treat the symptoms. A
recent study in Britain looked at 486 patients with diagnosed Alzheimer's and
treated them with two different doses of the main drugs and two placebos and
followed them for three years," he said.
"At the end of three years, they found no difference in the rate of
institutalization or progression to severe disability, so in other words the
drugs may help initially--but they don't slow the process down."
Turnbull's biggest concern when it comes to the future of Alzheimer's is
the potential drain on medical and nursing home resources.
"We're already facing a huge problem with nursing shortages in this
country and it can only get worse if we have all these people to care for,"
he said.
"Soon, Alzheimer's Disease will touch everyone in the this country
in some form or another, so the need to redouble our research efforts are
greater than ever before," said Samuel.
Gandy,
chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory
Council. "We must have better
treatments, earlier detection and effective strategies to prevent Alzheimer's.
Scientists have made tremendous strides in the last two decades, but the
clock is ticking."
Research for years has been trying to find a way to look inside the brain
for early signs of plaque formation, with scientists looking for a compound that
would cross the blood brain barrier, stick to plaques and clear out again,
allowing a scan to isolate plaque deposition in the brain.
A compound has been isolated, called the Pittsburg Compound, and together
with a laser microscope, preliminary tests have been able to look inside the
brain to search for tiny individual amyloid plaques.
"Why is that important?" There
should be a medication out in the next three years that will be the first to
disintegrate the plaque, or some of the plaque, that forms on the brain as a
result of Alzheimer's, so that would be a huge advancement," Kendall said.
"The medication might also have potential to restore some brain
function, but obviously once the brain begins to deteriorate, nothing can bring
that back, so it's catching it in the early stages."
"One difficulty with these disorders that affect the brain and
nervous system--is they've been around for a long time but we're no further
ahead in terms of stopping the process," Turnbull said.
"If you're diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, it's a death
sentence."
Finding a cure for Alzheimer's is something that Turnbull is hopeful
about.
"It's something that I personally think about.
I don't want to end up incapacitated, incompetent in a nursing home, so
I'm hoping somebody will find something to halt the progression.
Who knows what we can do with genetics?
I think we already know which genes are involved, but if we can do some
kind of genetic splicing or genetic engineering, maybe someone will find a way
to alter the genetic makeup if you're at high risk to do something about it.
"The other thing has to do with stem cell research.
Are we going to be able to implant something in the brain that makes new
tissue, makes new cells, and gets rid of the ones that have twisted on
themselves, got holes in them? That
would be a major triumph," he said, "Given the rate at which research
is progressing, in the next decade we will find something to stop it in its
tracks."
As the prevalence of Alzheimer's grows, so does the cost to the nation.
The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer's and other dementias amount
to more than $148 billion annual, which is more than the annual sales of any
retailer in the world excluding Wal-Mart, according to Alzheimer's report, the
first update of the Alzheimer's toll since 2002.
"Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures clearly shows the tremendous
impact this disease is having on the nation, and with the projected growth of
the disease, the collective impact on individuals, families, Medicare, Medicaid
and businesses will be even greater," says Harry Johns, president and CEO
of the Alzheimer's Association.
Medicare currently spends nearly three times as much for people with
Alzheimer's and other dementias than for the average Medicare beneficiary.
Medicare costs are projected to double from $91 billion in 2005 to more
than $189 billion by 2015.
That doesn't include the value of the unpaid
round-the-clock care that families provide to Alzheimer's patients who live at
home.
Kendall stressed that finding a cure for Alzheimer's must be a priority
in this nation.
"The hurricane (Katrina) folks also had warning--not as much as we
did--and some of those chose not to do anything, and look what happened,"
she said.
Courtesy:
Kingsport Times News
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