psychology
march 2015
BY bill chang
Two new breakthrough treatments show promising results in treatment of Alzheimer’s
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The progression of Alzheimer’s is slow, subtle, and remorseless. The sufferer become less alert, more childlike, and more forgetful and the major brain regions degenerates. Eventually, after an average of 10 years after the onset, the victim will enter a vegetative state and die. By the time patients are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, there is usually no hope for curing it. This month, major breakthroughs have been made by Alzheimer’s researchers. The results showed promising results for future patients. Researchers in University of Queensland found a way to treat Alzheimer’s with a non-invasive ultrasound technology. The treatment shows promising results by not only slowing memory loss but restoring it.
Mostly known for the memory loss it causes, Alzheimer’s include other symptoms such as difficulty in controlling muscle movements, hallucination, and jumbled speech. Currently, most treatments are designed to suppress these symptoms instead of tackling the degeneration of the brain itself.
These Australian researchers uses the ultrasound to open the outer layer of the brain to let in cells that can help fight Alzheimer’s toxins. Even though the testings were done on mice, the results were promising. 75% of the mice the team tested on showed zero damage to the surrounding brain tissues.