Two taxpayer-subsidized “Decades of the Brain” research projects failed to produce a single viable treatment — much less a cure — for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Mainstream medicine still doesn’t even know how to precisely diagnose AD, as I’ll explain in a moment.
Instead, they dance around all the wrong diagnostic findings. And they only focus on drug development and genetic testing.
Worst of all, they ignore all the natural, non-drug approaches to preventing and even reversing AD.
Tangle theory proves troublesome for diagnosis
For decades, pathologists found microscopic, dense neurofibrillary plaques and tangles in the brains of some patients. It was widely thought that these plaques and tangles lead to the death of brain cells, resulting in dementia.
But it turns out such plaques are not uniquely associated with any particular pathologic diagnosis. Plus, pathologists often find similar plaques in other tissues around the body.
Of course, brain researchers look only at the brain. So — they came to accept the presence of these plaques as indicators of the clinical condition of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
However, as I have reported previously, research shows only half of people clinically diagnosed with AD actually have these neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. Furthermore, half of people who don’t have clinical dementia do have the neurofibrillary tangles anyway.
So — the prediction value of this pathologic finding is 50:50. Which is as good as just flipping a coin. Or as good as your chances of getting correct medical advice from Dr. Oz or any other TV doctor. And having a 50 percent chance of getting the right answer is 100 percent useless because you never know which half is right, and which is wrong.
In other words, not so good and basically worthless.
More questions than answers
In the latest autopsy study, researchers studied the brains of eight people ages 90 years or older — all of whom had superior memory until the time of their deaths at advanced ages. In fact, the researchers picked these participants, in particular, because of their superior performance on memory tests, compared to their “normal” peers.
The researchers examined the hippocampal area of the brain, which is associated with memory. They found widespread and extensive presence of dense “Alzheimer’s” neurofibrillary plaques and tangles in one-third of the participants with superior memory. They found that brain cells remained intact, despite the presence of “Alzheimer’s pathology.”
The study also examined the brains of five people diagnosed with clinical Alzheimer’s dementia who also had the presence of Alzheimer’s pathology. In these cases, the hippocampus showed significant death of brain cells. There was also significant cell death in other areas of the brain in these cases.
Overall, the simple presence of Alzheimer’s pathology is not well correlated to actual brain cell death, and thus to memory loss and cognitive deficits.
Put a bit more simply, mainstream medicine has been barking up the wrong tree all along. What they thought of as a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease really isn’t at all.
The researchers in this study theorized that other factors must protect the brains of the patients with superior memory, despite the presence of “Alzheimer’s pathology.” They propose conducting large-scale studies to find “genetic factors,” the other holy grail in science (besides drugs), to determine what causes AD.
But by now focusing on these mythical “genetic factors,” instead of so-called Alzheimer’s pathology, they will remain stuck in the same rut — even when their evidence points otherwise.
Perhaps these plaques and tangles just accumulate with age. Perhaps they have nothing to do with brain cell death, as long as brain cells are well-nourished.
Going forward, take a direct approach
In my view, we should forget the plaques and tangles. Forget the genetic testing. Forget the worthless AD drugs.
Instead, we should concentrate on nourishing brain cells and keeping them alive.
You know, take the direct approach to brain health.
Fortunately, scientific studies show you can keep your brain cells nourished with some simple, natural, non-drug approaches. You can learn about these proven, natural approaches to support brain health at any age in my new Complete Alzheimer’s Cure online learning protocol.
In the meantime, tell your doctor you don’t want to dance the “Alzheimer’s tangle tango.” Let them try Billy Idol’s, “Dancing with Myself.” It’s time to call another tune, since after all, we are the ones who ultimately must pay the piper for it all.
Source:
- “Elderly discovered with superior memory and Alzheimer’s pathology,” Science Daily (www.sciencedaily.com) 11/16/2016