Alzheimer’s disease

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Variously Attributed [This blog was written and published on Monday July 20th, two days prior to the announcement of the results of Eli Lilly’s clinical trials of solanezumab for Alzheimer’s.] Until now, there have been only two globally-approved drugs for […]

Alzheimer’s disease steals our souls. We lose our humanity when it destroys the neurons that make up a critical part of our brains, but why those neurons die has always remained a mystery since “senility” was first noted, thousands of years ago. Even in the past century, since it was first described clinically by Dr. […]

Last weekend, a global entrepreneur asked me about the difference between much of the current research and what we’re doing. He cited the example of a particular compound (NAD+), but any number of other compounds could be given as examples. My answer was that most researchers are focused on their one particular tree and can’t […]

Last week I attended a global conference on aging research. The presentations were professional and thoughtful, as befits an organization of researchers with impeccable academic and clinical credentials. These are bright, well-educated people who work hard to understand not only the basic science that underlies aging, but the possible interventions that might cure age-related diseases. […]

Things are slowly beginning to move ahead on our project to cure Alzheimer’s disease. It’s clear that not only is the role of microglia slowly becoming accepted, but there are more and more investors who see an opportunity to help move biotech and medicine from the old paradigm (BAPP and Tau cause disease) to the […]

Every several weeks, I notice publication of yet another article trumpeting another aspect of Alzheimer’s. Where once it was APOE-4, AB42, or SS31 (an antioxidant peptide), more recent work emphasizes arginine metabolism in the microglia. The good news is that research community has — ponderously and hesitantly — finally begun to shift the clinical focus […]

At the moment, there are four companies planning human trials to reset telomeres using telomerase genes. In every case, the intent is to put the telomerase genes (hTERT and hTERC) into human patients in an effort to cure age-related diseases. Let’s look at the diseases and then the companies involved. Essentially, all age-related diseases occur […]

As I write this in March of 2015, there are 1,315 registered clinical studies of potential interventions for Alzheimer’s disease (see ClinicalTrials.gov). While it is hard to define clearly, many of these studies deal with nursing issues, rather than medical interventions aimed at preventing or curing the pathology itself. Of those that are testing potential […]

As of 2013, we can neither cure nor prevent a single age-related disease. Even at our absolute best – and then only questionably and in one or two cases – can we even slow the unrelenting progress of any of our myriad age-related diseases. Trying for an optimistic view of current medical interventions, and even […]

My newest book, “Immortality Edge”, coauthored by Greta Blackburn and David Woynarowski is a combined look at diet, exercise, lifestyle, meditation, and other approaches. It is not intended to give advice on how to lengthen telomeres, so much as to slow down their loss; not so much aimed at reversing aging, as slowing the process […]