Anyone Ever Recovered From Memory Issues
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Posted 30 April 2010 – 02:11 AM
Edited by racingmind, 30 April 2010 – 02:11 AM.
- Location:Boston
Posted 30 April 2010 – 02:29 AM
I’m not talking about simply forgetting where you put stuff now and then, i’m talking about always getting lost, always forgetting what to say, always forgetting all sorts of things no matter how interested one is in the subject, always forgetting plans, etc… that’s been an issue since birth… has anyone ever been able to improve to at least baseline memory through the use of medications/ supplements?
Normal B12 Levels And Hypothyroid Treatment Scandals
My literature search on PubMed involving almost 2,000 articles on hypothyroidism, Lyme disease, adrenal fatigue, and B12 might be expected to provide some evidence to support the values used in current blood B12 tests. Yet my literature search provided no evidence whatsoever on how those levels on normal or deficient were arrived at. I went back to 1934 in my search. Nor did I find anything that justifies the current conservative treatment: a shot of B12 for 7 days and then either one per week for a few weeks, or one per month for a while no specifics, and no two instructions ever seem to agree. The seriousness of the case is also not considered at all.
Maybe it was my fault for not finding the information, but then I was amazed to find politely worded outrage among the experts in the journals that publish research on testing in medicine. They, too, were outraged, and I wondered with mounting alarm about how many doctors read those journals. The two most important ones are Blood Transfusion and Blood . A truly amazing example came from doctors in Canada, published in 2000 that date approaches almost a generation ago! Nothing has happened since, however, to make this B12 testing scientific nor has anything happened to adjust the current thyroid tests to published science.
I am available by e-mail .
The Apoe Gene Can Modify Your Risk Of Alzheimers
Many people have read or heard about variations in the APOE gene as a risk factor for Alzheimers. Interestingly, in their inquiry into why this woman with a mutation for early-onset Alzheimers had not yet developed dementia, the researchers found that she had an additional mutation in her APOE gene.
APOE has been linked to ordinary, late-onset Alzheimers disease and comes in three common forms. Most people, about 70% to 75%, have APOE3. About 15% to 20% of people have an APOE4 gene, and about 5% to 10% of people have an APOE2 gene.
- If you have one APOE4 gene, your risk of developing Alzheimers disease is three to four times more likely than if you only have APOE3 genes.
- If you have one APOE2 gene, your risk of developing Alzheimers disease is somewhat less than if you only have APOE3 genes.
This womans mutation of her APOE gene is an unusual variant called APOE3Christchurch , named after the New Zealand city where it was first discovered. Even more unusual is the fact that she had two versions of this mutation, meaning that both her father and her mother gave it to her. The researchers wondered if this APOE3ch mutation could be the cause of her resistance to Alzheimers disease.
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Important Implications Of Recovering Long Term Memories
The conclusions of these studies could be groundbreaking for Alzheimers research, because Alzheimers is thought to only destroy synapses in the brain. Glanzman stated,
As long as the neurons are still alive, the memory will still be there, which means you may be able to recover some of the lost memories in the early stages of Alzheimers.
He does caution, however, that in later stages of the disease neurons actually die which would most likely inhibit the recovery of a memory.
The study is in its very early stages and it is important to note that while Aplasia does have similar neural molecular and cellular processes to humans they only have 20,000 neurons compared to the one trillion neurons found in the human brain. Nevertheless, the study does bring a glimmer of hope to the research community as well as the nearly 36 million people worldwide living with the disease.
What do you think? Are you hopeful that long term memories can be recovered in those with the disease? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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The Rise Of Treatable Neurology
In October 2019, another patient was admitted to the John Radcliffe hospital.Pippa Carter, aged 19, had just begun an English literature degree at the University of Leeds when she noticed that her vision seemed to be strangely distorted.
I would be in lectures and I was really struggling to focus with my eyesight and with concentration in general, she says. I was trying to audition for a university play, and I had to stop because I couldnt really read at all. Initially, I thought it was just nerves because I was starting a new chapter in life.
Within weeks, she found herself unable to get her words out properly, before she was taken to hospital after suffering a large seizure. Just like Abraham, it was the speed of her decline which alerted doctors to a potential autoimmune cause. Within a week she was hallucinating, shouting things, remembers Irani. In her hospital room, which she was in for several weeks, she drew these bizarre childlike pictures on the wall, like the sorts of things a four-year-old would draw. It was like something was causing her to regress in her behaviour.
Carter was suffering from a neuropsychiatric syndrome caused by an autoantibody binding to the brains NMDA receptors, proteins which play a key role in learning and memory formation. Soon after she began treatment, first with steroids, and then an immunotherapy called rituximab, she began to improve. Now more than a year on, she is hoping to resume her university studies soon.
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A Loss Of Smell Can Signal Trouble
And de Erausquin and his colleagues have noticed that mental problems seem to be more common in COVID-19 patients who lose their sense of smell, perhaps because the disease has affected a brain area called the olfactory bulb.
“Persistent lack of smell, it’s associated with brain changes not just in the olfactory bulb but those places that are connected one way or another to the smell sense,” he says.
Those places include areas involved in memory, thinking, planning and mood.
COVID-19’s effects on the brain also seem to vary with age, de Erausquin says. People in their 30s seem more likely to develop anxiety and depression.
“In older people, people over 60, the foremost manifestation is forgetfulness,” he says. “These folks tend to forget where they placed things, they tend to forget names, they tend to forget phone numbers. They also have trouble with language they begin forgetting words.”
The symptoms are similar to those of early Alzheimer’s, and doctors sometimes describe these patients as having an Alzheimer’s-like syndrome that can persist for many months.
The Bad News: No One Has Ever Recovered From Alzheimer’s
Here are the grim statistics. There are 44 million people in the world who have Alzheimer’s disease, including 5.3 million Americans. The average life span after diagnosis? Four to eight years. By 2031, one-third of the over-85 population will suffer from it.
And once it sinks in that no has has ever been cured, and we are still years or even decades away from finding a cure, you’ll want to do everything you can to avoid becoming an Alzheimer’s victim.
Of course, it’s hard to overcome basic genetics. Many studies link your proclivity to acquiring Alzheimer’s to your DNA. But, there are some common sense lifestyle measures you can take that may block or at least delay its onset, including, of course, diet, exercise, improved sleep habits and social interaction.
Here are some links to some helpful articles:
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The Woman Who Recovered From Dementia
The author’s mother with her granddaughters. The retired psychiatrist’s cognitive symptoms improved immediately after brain surgery two years ago. Photo / Supplied
When my mother, Pauline, was 70, she lost her sense of balance. She started walking with an odd shuffling gait, taking short steps and barely lifting her feet off the ground. She often took my hand, holding it and squeezing my fingers.
Her decline was precipitous. She fell repeatedly. She stopped driving, and she could no longer ride her bike in a straight line along the C& O Canal. The woman who taught me the sidestroke couldn’t even stand in the shallow end of the pool. “I feel like I’m drowning,” she’d say.
A retired psychiatrist, my mother had numerous advantages – education, resources and insurance – but, still, getting the right diagnosis took nearly 10 years. Each expert saw the problem through the narrow prism of a single specialty.
Surgeons recommended surgery. Neurologists screened for common incurable conditions. The answer was under their noses, in my mother’s hunches and her family history. But it took a long time before someone connected the dots.
My mother was using a walker by the time she was told she had a rare condition that causes gait problems and cognitive loss, and is one of the few treatable forms of dementia.
The bad news was that it had taken so long to get the diagnosis that some of the damage might not be reversible.
Success Story: How I Recovered From The Devastating Effects Of Lyme Disease
Robert and Helke Ferrie at their off-the-grid home where Helke is enjoying a new lease on life
Shocking Links Between Dementia, Hypothyroidism, B12 Deficiency, and Lyme Disease Revealed
Losing ones mind is a horrible experience. The irony is that you need some of your mind still available to recognize that you are losing it, so you can stop the loss. This is my story of a sudden, unexpected descent into a black void from which there seemed to be no escape. Yet in the end I did escape, and am now approaching what I once took for granted as normal brain function.
To prepare for this feature, I read more than 2,000 mainstream medical articles on PubMed, downloaded about 100 for intensive study, and read a dozen books on Lyme disease, thyroid disease, and vitamin B12 deficiency.
I have never before done such an extensive survey of medical research on any topic. Why? There is nothing like personal experience to unleash my focused rage at a medical system that allows such avoidable suffering. As has been my usual experience, the published research is superb and produced by the worlds top universities, but the actual treatment of Lyme disease, thyroid disorders, and nutrient deficiencies is distorted by politics and prejudice.
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The Coronavirus Has Been Devastating For People Over 80 But Many Are Surviving
Anna Marie Bresnan, who lives at Philadelphia Protestant Home, a retirement community in Northeast Philadelphia, is 84 and has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
John and Kitty Stagliano, of Exton, are both 82 and have diabetes and high blood pressure.
Norma Cammisa is 93, has dementia, takes medicine for high cholesterol, and lives in a nursing home in Collingswood.
All of them caught the coronavirus. All of them survived.
Why they did so well when thousands of other people over 80 have succumbed to the new disease is a mystery that intrigues and heartens physicians and aging experts. In New Jersey, nearly half of the 11,880 people who have died of coronavirus were 80 and older. As of May 29, 44% of Pennsylvania’s 5,464 deaths were in that age group. Age, plus chronic health problems such as heart and lung disease or diabetes, greatly increase the odds that people with COVID-19 will get very sick or die.
Even in nursing homes, which are populated by frail elders who need hands-on care, a high percentage of residents who test positive for the virus have had no symptoms or mild ones. Most survive.
Joshua Uy, a Penn Medicine geriatrician who is medical director of a West Philadelphia nursing home that had the city’s first coronavirus outbreak, said about a third of the 22 residents there with confirmed coronavirus were asymptomatic, a third had mild symptoms, and the remainder got very sick. Five died.
“I am just so grateful,” she said.
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A Clue To A Cure For Alzheimers Disease
- By Andrew E. Budson, MD, Contributor
Are you worried about Alzheimers disease? Does one of your parents or siblings have the disease? If so, your risks are between two and four times that of the general public. What about people without a family history of the disease? Unfortunately, everyone is at risk for it. By age 85, half of you reading this article today will have developed Alzheimers disease, with or without a family history.
Sounds pretty scary, doesnt it?
Im writing today to give you some good news. A new study from the lab of Harvard researcher Yakeel Quiroz, PhD, has suggested a new target for drugs that might have the potential to slow down or even stop Alzheimers disease in its tracks.
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Aarp’s $60 Million Investment Supports Research Into Promising Treatments
by Rachel Nania, AARP, June 25, 2020| 0
En español | Brad Margus is hoping to discover answers to some of medicines biggest mysteries by peering deep inside the brain.
Locating the specific gene thats responsible for igniting inflammation near the brains memory center could lead to a targeted treatment that minimizes brain injury in people with Alzheimers disease. And knowing which cell-specific proteins are responsible for producing motor symptoms of Parkinsons disease may bring about a drug that disables them.
This precise approach makes it possible to make drugs that only act on the cell type you care about, reducing the unwanted side effects that most drugs have, says Margus, chief executive officer of Cerevance, a Boston-based drug development company focused on brain diseases. Whats more, it could lead to a major breakthrough in the field of dementia research. About 50 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, and still there is no treatment to stop or slow its progression.
Stem Cell Therapy For Alzheimers Disease
Stem cell therapy for Alzheimer’s may be able to:
- Improve functional memory
- Improve overall functional recovery
- Replace damaged cells with health cells
Stem cell therapy is a unique approach to treating Alzheimerâs Disease. It involves the systemic introduction of Mesenchymal Stem Cells into the body via IV. When introduced in large quantities, these stem cells can find inflammation within the body and repair it. This unique property of stem cells is what potentially makes them a viable treatment for Alzheimerâs Disease.
According to Lawrence Goldstein, Ph.D., The increased amount of plaques and tangles within the brain of an Alzheimerâs patient affect two essential proteins: âamyloid-betaâ and âtau.â
Stem cell treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease aims to replace the damaged cells with healthy stem cells which can grow on their own, hence, creating new healthy brain cells.
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A Hammer Against Alzheimers
iNDI is the kind of initiative thats only possible with our recent biotech boost. Engineering hundreds of cells related to Alzheimersand to share with scientists globallywas a pipe dream just two decades ago.
To be clear, the project doesnt just generate individual cells. It uses CRISPR to make cell lines, or entire lineages of cells with the Alzheimers gene that can pass on to the next generation. And thats their power: they can be shared with labs around the world, to further home in on genes that could make the largest impact on the disorder. Phase two of iNDI is even more powerful, in that it digs into the inner workings of these cells to generate a cheat codea sheet of how their genes and proteins behave.
Together, the project does the hard work of building a universe of Alzheimers-related cells, each outfitted with a gene that could make an impact on dementia. These types of integrative analyses are likely to lead to interesting and actionable discoveries that no one approach would be able to learn in isolation, the authors wrote. It provides the best chance at truly understanding Alzheimers and related diseases, and promising treatment possibilities.
Challenges To Finding A Cure
The path towards a cure is not going to be easy, and even if these theories do lead to the development of drugs, these drugs may fail for a host of other reasons.
Alzheimers is a very long, chronic disease, probably present 20 to 30 years before the first symptoms become obvious. Giving the drug when a person becomes symptomatic may be too late for it to make any difference. But we do not have the ability to diagnose it 30 years before the first symptoms, and even if we could, we would need to consider the ethics of giving a potentially toxic drug long-term to someone who may or may not get a disease in three decades.
Also, unlike developing antibiotics in which the researchers know within days if the drug works, the chronic nature of Alzheimers requires long, expensive trials years in duration before an answer can be attained. Such time and expense is a further impediment to drug development.
One final problem is that Alzheimers may not simply be one disease. It may in fact be a collection of similar diseases. A 52-year-old with early onset Alzheimers certainly has a clinical course distinct and different from an 82-year-old with late onset Alzheimers. Will a drug that works in an 82-year-old also work in a 52-year-old persons disease? Maybe, or maybe not.
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Recent Study Supports Recovering Memories In Early Alzheimers
More recent studies support the theory that memories lost due to Alzheimers can be recovered. The newest study to suggest the recovery of lost memories involved mice with early stages of the disease. Researcher found they could reverse memory loss if the correct set of neurons was activated.
The study, recently published in Nature, placed mice in a container where they were exposed to a shock to their foot. When they felt the shock, they froze. The healthy mice remembered what was happening and froze when put in the same box the next day. The mice with early Alzheimers did not remember the shock and thus, did not freeze when placed in the same box the next day.
However, when researchers tagged engram cells with a light-sensitive protein an watched the brain cells of the mice with Alzheimers, they found that those mice actually showed fear. MIT graduate student, Dheeraj Roy, said:
Directly activating the cells that we believe are holding the memory gets them to retrieve it. This suggests that it is indeed an access problem to the information, not that theyre unable to learn or store this memory.