We continue to be bombarded with scientific articles, detailing new modifiers and new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease: most of these are ineffective, but some reports do contain a hint of a possible solution.
Encouraging news
The latest effort is entitled “ALZ-801 for 2 years sustained cognition in early Alzheimer’s: no safety issues seen in a 2 year long, Phase 2 trial of Alzheon’s oral therapy”, posted by Steve Bryson, PhD, in “Alzheimer’s news today”, on 22 September, 2023.
This report describes a Phase 2 clinical trial (NCT04693520), designed to evaluate the two-year safety and efficacy of daily ALZ-801 in 84 adults with early Alzheimer’s who had either one or two copies of APOE4 and who tested positive for amyloid and tau biomarkers in their cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, the liquid surrounding the brain and spinal cord).
The investigators achieved a reduction of serum beta-amyloid and tau by 4%, with slowing of shrinkage of the hippocampus (by 28%) and a significantly reduced rate of cognitive decline.
This is encouraging news for people with early Alzheimer’s disease. However from a metabolic medicine/hormonal balance point of view there is, as I said in my last post, an elephant in the room. That elephant is a fact of which we are all aware: Alzheimer’s disease develops over several decades and may be slowed (perhaps, stopped), but not reversed. Therefore, it makes better sense to concentrate on prevention, diagnosis-at-onset and really early treatment, rather than cure of an entrenched, progressive disease.
Alzheimer’s prevention
“Yes”, you say, “but how can you prevent Alzheimer’s, when you have no idea as to its cause?” – My answer is that there is a putative cause, since
(1) Alzheimer’s is due to degeneration of neurons and
(2) Our maintenance and repair systems, dependent as they are on hormonal balance, as well as adequate mineral and vitamin availability, begin to decline at age 26 as hormone production slows and vitamin/mineral deficiencies develop.
The continuous decline of hormone secretion beginning at age 26, and deficiency of essential mineral and vitamin intake, are easily observed and well known. We have good scientific reason to supplement our failing hormones, vitamins and minerals. If Alzheimer’s is actually due to deterioration of our maintenance systems as hormone production declines, essential dietary and hormone supplementation might reduce its incidence or at least, delay its onset.
Surveillance and supplementation
I therefore propose that we should proactively assess each individual’s hormone balance on an ongoing basis and supplement their hormones and their diet ad hoc, while monitoring the blood for tau and beta-amyloid. If this is done, we could observe whether hormone supplementation delays the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Also, those who become tau and beta-amyloid positive would be available for studies of new treatments for Alzheimer’s, such as Dr. Bryson’s, at the onset of their disease.
