Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Combining Alzheimer's drugs helps slow rate of decline in Alzheimer's Patients

These findings should bring hope to those suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia. Baby boomers should take note.
My mother is currently moving into the medium stage of Alzheimer's so for us this is exciting news. I intend to send this information to our personal care physician and discuss it with him immediately.
"Finding something that could actually modify the course of the disease is the Holy Grail of Alzheimer's treatment, but we really don't know if that is happening or what the mechanism behind these effects might be," Alireza Atri explains. "What we can say now is that providers should help patients understand that the benefits of these drugs are long term and may not be apparent in the first months of treatment. Even if a patient's symptoms get worse, that doesn't mean the drug isn't working, since the decline probably would have been much greater without therapy."

The results raise the intriguing possibility that the drugs may be protecting the patients' brains from further deterioration, the authors said.

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