Top Alzheimer’s Expert Reveals: We’ve Wasted Billions on Drugs When All We Needed Was Prevention

By Mason Grant

Guest Writer for Wake Up World

In the last few decades, almost $40 billion has been spent worldwide on trying to develop a breakthrough drug treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, yet we still don’t have anything that can slow down, let alone stop, the disease. The pharmaceutical industry has left patients and their families in the hopeless position of waiting on drug treatment for a disease desperately needing investments in prevention.

What’s so cruel is that no one has ever made it clear to patients or their families that treatment options are not the only route to help victims or those predisposed to this disease.

There are other options.

Prevention Is Key

Professor David Smith, Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology at Oxford University and a top dementia expert, states that there are things that can be done to improve the situation right now — but governments, charities and other research bodies need to make a long overdue switch to a new strategy: preventing the disease.

The idea was to develop drugs to block or clear amyloid plaque — the sticky damaged protein associated with dying neurons. Concentrating on this exclusively — without even considering any other options — has condemned millions to a decline that might have been slowed down or prevented.

“How many billions do you have to spend without a result before admitting it’s time to also look elsewhere? What we should have spent some money on is research into prevention. If you can’t reverse the damage, the obvious step is to stop it happening at all,” states Professor Smith.

“We know it is possible. In fact, research suggests that a strong commitment to prevention could cut the number of Alzheimer’s victims by 20 percent by 2025.”

What we need is a big increase in public funding for research into the prevention of Alzheimer’s.

The Importance of Diet

Over the last few years, hints of a connection between Alzheimer’s and lifestyle have emerged, but scientists have become increasingly interested in investigating such a link and are just now beginning to realize that what is good for the heart may also be good for the brain.

One of the key things we need to address is people’s diet. For instance, switching to a so-called Mediterranean diet — rich in fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and olive oil — could have a real impact.

Dr. Newport, a physician who runs a neonatology ward in a Florida hospital, became determined to help her husband, Steve Newport after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Insulin problems prevent brain cells from accepting glucose, their primary fuel… there is an alternative fuel, ketones which the cells easily accept. Ketones are metabolized in the liver after you eat medium chain triglycerides which are found in coconut oil.

After incorporating coconut oil into his diet, Steve Newport began passing specific clock tests designed to help diagnose Alzheimer’s patients. He began improving intellectually, emotionally and physically.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease may also benefit by taking an antioxidant called N-acetylcysteine(NAC) according to one study. Dr. John C. Adair of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and colleagues hypothesized that the antioxidant NAC could counteract that damage and improve patients’ function.

There are a growing number of Clinicians and Scientists who are convinced that heavy metals play a critical role in the development of several neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s. Metal toxicants entering the part of the brain that deals with stress and panic have been linked to the disease.

[Editor's note: For more information on the effects of metal toxicants and how you can detoxify your body of them, please see: Remove Toxic Heavy Metals from Your Body in Less Than 7 Hours]

Data from France suggests people with higher intakes of vitamin D may be at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The highest average intakes of the sunshine vitamin were associated with a 77% decrease in the risk of Alzheimer’s, report researchers in the The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science.

Any action plan can’t just involve drugs — that is imperative to have large-scale clinical trials of ways to cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s with improved diet and lifestyle.

Many lifestyle factors linked to heart disease also increase your risk of Alzheimer’s, including high blood pressure, smoking and cholesterol levels.

The heart-healthy benefits of the so-called Mediterranean diet are well known, but new research suggests the eating plan may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, too.

People who carefully followed the Mediterranean diet — heavy on fish, fruits and vegetables, monounsaturated fats such as those found in olive oil, and low on meat and dairy products — had a 40 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those who ate the conventional American diet.

Research indicates the disease is also more common in regions of northwest Italy where levels of aluminum in drinking water are highest. When the researchers tested water in regions of northwest Italy in 1998, they found that total aluminum levels — including monomeric and other types of aluminum — ranged from 5 to 1,220 micrograms per liter, while monomeric aluminum levels alone ranged from 5 to 300 micrograms per liter. After comparing this data to death rates from Alzheimer’s in those regions, the researchers found that the disease was more common in areas with the highest levels of monomeric aluminum.

Funding: Prevention Is Not A Priority, But Drugs Are

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