World Alzheimer's Day - 21st Sept 2017

World Alzheimer’s Day, 21st September of each year, is a day on which Alzheimer’s organizations around the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer’s and dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of disorders that impairs mental functioning.

September 2017 will mark the 6th global World Alzheimer's Month, and will utilize the theme of 'Remember me' to highlight the importance of early detection and diagnosis of dementia.

Alzheimer's is a progressive, degenerative ailment of the brain. What makes this disease so severe is the fact that there is no definitive treatment to cure or slow its progress to date. Even though some medications can temporarily help manage symptoms from worsening, these drugs are effective only for short periods of time. 

There are two stages of Alzheimers, Early to Moderate and Moderate to Severe. All of the prescription medications currently approved to treat Alzheimer’s symptoms in early to moderate stages are from a class of drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors. Cholinesterase inhibitors are prescribed to treat symptoms related to memory, thinking, language, judgment and other thought processes. A second type of medication, memantine (Namenda) is approved by the FDA for treatment of moderate to severe Alzheimer’s. Memantine is prescribed to improve memory, attention, reason, language and the ability to perform simple tasks. It can be used alone or with other Alzheimer’s disease treatments. There is some evidence that individuals with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s who are taking a cholinesterase inhibitor might benefit by also taking memantine.

There are currently estimated to be over 46 million people worldwide living with dementia. The number of people affected is set to rise to over 131 million by 2050. They say there is one new case of dementia worldwide every three seconds.

The FDA-approved drugs most widely prescribed to treat Alzheimer's are Pfizer’s Aricept and Allergan’s Namzaric — are helpful but limited, physicians say. They treat only symptoms of the disease and give patients anywhere from six to twelve months of mild improvement. They each have strengthened belief in what's known as the amyloid hypothesis: the theory that states the reduction of amyloid in the brain can slow the progression of Alzheimer's. Other companies at the fore of investigating treatments for Alzheimer’s include Eli Lilly, Biogen and Novartis.

TOMORROWS TREATMENTS

As with any other disease, early detection is the key to improving survival and life expectancy for patients with Alzheimer's. Most sufferers die from Alzheimer's because they have not been diagnosed. That's why researchers and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning their focus to disease-modifying prevention drugs. Newer therapies are being worked on today at stopping Alzheimers before it has even started. The hope is that by treating people at risk for Alzheimer's before symptoms appear, is that we can prevent or even delay the onset of memory loss and other markers of the disease. Similar to the prevention-centric approach to the treatment of patients that are HIV positive. The drugs available today help these patients from ever developing AIDS symptoms.

Ultimately, the path to effective new treatments is through clinical trials. Trials are recruiting people with Alzheimer's and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), as well as healthy volunteers to be controls.

Find out more about participating in a clinical study through the Alzheimer’s Association TrialMatch service , a free tool for people with Alzheimer's, caregivers, families and physicians to locate clinical trials based on personal criteria (diagnosis, stage of disease) and location.

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Sources:

• https://alzheimersnewstoday.com/2017/04/24/latest-clinical-data-on-namenda-for-alzheimers-disease-confirms-beneficial-effects
• https://www.exelonpatch.com/index.jsp?usertrack.filter_applied=true&NovaId=2935377086520697493
• https://www.exelonpatch.com/index.jsp?usertrack.filter_applied=true&NovaId=2935377086520697493
• https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-alzheimers-day-2017/?
• https://www.worldalzmonth.org/