A friend of mine sent me a link about Alzheimer's recently, and I was surprised--shocked--horrified--to read that new drugs and other treatments can't find enough volunteers. I can't believe that. We would have signed a deal with the devil himself if he had agreed to give my dad a drug that would have given him a chance at a longer, healthier life.
I don't know how most of these trials work, but I know that the one my dad was part of did NOT make him STOP taking his medicine, it only added new medicine. And when we found out at the end that he was on the placebo, he received the real drug then.
The Alzheimer's Association now has a web page that helps match volunteers with clinical trials. I'm lucky enough to live near New Haven and to have had access to Yale University for my dad's studies, but if you don't live around here that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. There are even trials to sign up for healthy people who don't have AD--I added myself to their data bank.
Being in a clinical trial is about paying it forward. I knew that the drug would probably not help my dad. But down the line, it might have saved someone else from my family's pain.
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I am still accepting donations for my Walk to End Alzheimer's team--the walk is October 2, 2011. If you are not already doing the walk and haven't donated to anyone, I'd appreciate anything. This is my first year having a team and I'd love to show up with a lot of money to prove you don't have to be a corporation to raise funds. Click the to the left (or in my sidebar) to donate.
6 comments:
Please consider using aromatherapy to help treat your father. My sisters and I began treating my mother four years ago beginning with rosemary essential oil and subsequently adding clove, cinnamon leaf, oregano, thyme, sage, and sweet orange essential oils (she is now in her seventh year with Alzheimer's disease). Our mother recognizes her home again, sleeps through the night, has some short-term memory (for example, she can sometimes spell her name and remember the order of days and months), and is much more alert and aware than she was four years ago. Peroxynitrite scavengers such as Cinnamomum zeylanicum essential oil, Zataria multiflora Boiss. essential oil, holy basil, cinnamon extract, grape seed extract, and rosmarinic acid have reversed cognitive deficits in animal models of the disease. In addition, several clinical trials using essential oils either through tinctures or aromatherapy have led to significant improvement in cognitive fucntion in people with dementia, including those with Alzheimer's disease (see Jimbo et al and Akhondzadeh et al.). The use of aromatherapy appears not only to stop the progression of the disease, but to partially reverse it.
Let me add my name and a quote from an anonymous source: "Excellent results have been obtained with peroxynitrite scavengers [such as contained in various essential oils and which can be directly inhaled into the brain through aromatherapy--my addition], with reversals of Alzheimer's disease in human clinical trials being repeatedly demonstrated." There is very likely a simple solution to this disease, but it is not the preferred solution of the medical research and pharmaceutical complex in the United States. This is highly unfortunate.
I did use some aromatherapy on him. But he died in 2007 so it's not useful anymore.
I apologize for not following your writings more carefully and I regret the death of your father. I hope that aromatherapy can help others with Alzheimer's disease.
I am going to look into clinical trials but I think it is also important to consider that these trails can have harmful side affects or create unnecessary stress on the patient. I think each family would need to consider what is best for them when making a medical decision like this. Adding medications to someone's regime should be a carefully considered decision.
People should be indeed more socially responsible and start getting involved in these studies. I am sorry about your father.
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