Stopping Alzheimer’s before it starts
(WISH) — November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month.
If you know someone who has it, you know it’s a disease that doesn’t just steal memories, it steals moments with the people we love.
Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 6 million Americans and research shows it begins silently, years before memory loss shows up.
Now, a groundbreaking clinical trial is testing whether treating the disease before symptoms appear can delay or even prevent it.
Imagine a loved one forgetting your name. That’s the cruel reality of Alzheimer’s, starting long before anyone notices.
“The main driver of the disease is amyloid plaques and tau tangles. They cause damage to the brain cells,” said Dr. Patricia Andrews, geriatric psychiatrist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Brain changes leading to Alzheimer’s can start 20 years or more before memory loss.
During those silent years, a sticky protein called amyloid builds up. By the time memory loss appears, vital brain cells are already gone. “We wanna be able to stop that before they are damaged,” Andrews said.
The Ahead Study, funded by National Institutes of Health, aims to spot those hidden brain changes early. Using blood tests and PET (positron emission tomography) scans to detect amyloid, researchers give symptom-free volunteers either an antibody drug or a placebo to see if clearing amyloid can stop the disease before it starts. “We can slow the progression of the disease, but we know that we want to stop the disease,” Andrews said.
If successful, this could lead to a pill, taken like a daily vitamin, to protect memories that matter.
“People could take with their morning coffee and then not be worried that they’re gonna develop the disease in 10 years,” Andrews said.
Not everyone with amyloid in the brain will go on to develop memory problems, but those who do face a much higher risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers believe current clinical trials could be the key to stopping Alzheimer’s before it ever starts.
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