Joined: 12/12/2011
Posts: 5179
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There are now three studies in which mild Alzheimer's disease has been stabilized: panax ginseng, chinese herbs with conventional Alzheimer's medications (Aricept and/or Namenda), and Anavex 2-73. They all work by the same mechanism: limit oxidative stress, scavenge oxidants and nitro-oxidants, and partially reverse nitro-oxidative stress. The results can be seen in the links below.
Korean red ginseng
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3659550/figure/F002/
Chinese herbs plus conventional medicine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5729264/figure/Fig1/
Anavex 2-73 (see page 29)
http://www.anavex.com/my_uploads/Anavex-ANAVEX2-73-CTAD-Phase-2a-November-2017.pdf
If you stabilize Alzheimer's disease early you likely stabilize it for the rest of the person's life.
https://file.scirp.org/pdf/WJNS_2017040717155008.pdf
For moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease, the picture becomes somewhat more murky. The items listed above appear to slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease, but not stop the progression at these stages.
Mild Alzheimer's disease primarily affects the hippocampus whereas moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease affects both the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Both are damaged by nitro-oxidative stress in Alzheimer's disease.
Glutathione: a molecular whistleblower for Alzheimer’s disease [Glutathione is a critical antioxidant in the brain]
The hippocampi – the brain centres for learning and memory – are one of the earliest regions to be sabotaged by Alzheimer’s pathology. Our data revealed that GSH levels plummet in the hippocampi of patients with Alzheimer’s as well as those with MCI (Fig.1). The frontal cortices – brain CEOs responsible for a variety of executive functions – are chronologically affected later in Alzheimer’s.
Could it then be that GSH [glutathione] levels would be able to act like a detector test for MCI and Alzheimer’s? It appears that may well be the case. Using only GSH levels in the hippocampi and frontal cortices as indicators, we were able to differentiate between healthy subjects and MCI patients as well as between patients with MCI and Alzheimer’s with a remarkably high accuracy.
The damage done to the hippocampus appears to be partially reversible at any stage of Alzheimer's disease. People can remember their name again, recognize their home, complete phrases, repeat the alphabet, count numbers, engage in conversations, recognize relatives, be more alert and aware, etc.
Here are a couple of examples for late Alzheimer's disease. One is rosemary an antioxidant and the second is bryostatin-1 which may help with memory loss due to NMDA hypofunction late in Alzheimer's disease.
 Rosemary for Alzheimer's treatment
My mother is in the final stages of Alzheimer's and was given a rough estimate of only 6 more months of life back in November. As is very common, her condition can change from day to day but still in a general direction for the worse. She reached the point where, if she was even awake at all, she couldn't communicate anymore and hardly showed the sign of being aware of my presence. I've been using alternative medicine for a few years now to treat my depression, anxiety, and also for general health. I've since discovered the overlooked value of the herb Rosemary and now use it to treat the symptoms of my depression. I've also noticed better clarity of thought along with an improved short term memory. I was able to get the doctor's permission to give this herb to my mother and we figured at least it couldn't hurt. Much to my surprise, there's been a noticable change. There have been quite a few day now where my mom has been more focused and alert than she's been in a long time. I even got some news from one of her nurses who said my mother had a brief conversation with her. Its been at least a year or two since I can remember anything like that. This change has also been noticed by others on the nursing staff as well as her doctor, who is very surprised. Now I'm not suggesting this is any kind of a "cure" for Alzheimer's but the improvement in my mother's condition is something to be said about Rosemary and it's given me some more quality time with her that I thought had been thing of the past.........Gary
[Bryostatin-1 recepient] was given multiple infusions over a period of 5 months. He became more alert and engaged, watched TV, began speaking, and requested to return to work. The improvements lasted for several weeks, after which the treatment was discontinued due to non-drug-related infections.
The [second] patient, who had previously been largely immobile and absorbed in constant hallucinations that had occurred for many months prior to the bryostatin trial, became free of hallucinations, became mobile, able to feed himself, care for bodily functions, speak and recognize words, interact conversationally with others, and engage successfully in complex physical activities such as swimming and billiards.
However as yet, no drug or natural compound has restored prefrontal cortex function which includes retrieval of memory of events and the ability to put words and thoughts into logical order. Perhaps antioxidants are more effective in the hippocampus than in the preforntal cortex. Or perhaps by the time they help reverse damage in the hippocampus there is nothing left for the prefrontal cortex.
We have the opportunity to prevent the progression of early Alzheimer's disease and to contribute to some improvements in memory in those with late Alzheimer's disease.
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Joined: 1/1/2018
Posts: 210
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Thankyou!
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Joined: 12/12/2011
Posts: 5179
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I appreciate it wolfewoman.
I am not sure how this first chart was derived, but it suggests that treatment with various Chinese herbs plus conventional Alzheimer's medications (Aricept and Namenda) are disease modifying whereas the conventional medicines alone provide only symptomatic relief for a relatively short period of time.
The dotted black line in the first chart: curative treatment
The blue line: disease modifying treatment
The dash black line: symptomatic treatment
The red line: disease progression
The red line in the top half of the second chart: chinese herbs plus conventional treatment.
The blue line: conventional treatment (i.e. symptomatic treatment).
The red line: disease progression.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3868059/figure/F1/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5729264/figure/Fig1/
If you right click on the image and then left click on open image in new tab, the image will appear in normal size.
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