Charles Piller

isn't this a really beneficial effect of the drugs yes they did not reverse the cognitive decline of alzheimer's they did not arrest the symptoms but what they did is they made it possible for people to decline a very slightly less rapidly now so if these drugs were completely safe to take

if they were completely affordable if they were drugs that did not require potentially harmful infusion process in doctor's offices or in clinics and they only had a slightly beneficial effect then why would anyone refuse them who was beginning to experience the symptoms of alzheimer's disease but unfortunately the story told i think is not quite correct so what in the community of

neurologists and other doctors who prescribe these drugs or don't prescribe them in some cases, is that these drugs, the benefits of them as described are so minimal that many doctors, patients, and family members would not be able to notice those benefits.

In other words, the effects would not be discernible.

That's how subtle they are.

But at the same time, they have potentially dangerous side effects, including brain swelling and bleeding,

and including brain atrophy.

That's the shrinkage of the brain that occurs more rapidly than the shrinkage that occurs within Alzheimer's disease itself.

And so you have these contradictions of potentially dangerous brain swelling and bleeding that does kill people on occasion.

for the benefits of the drug that are so subtle that in many cases people say it's imperceptible.

So I'm not saying that no one should take these drugs.

That's a decision that people should make with their physicians and with their family members.

But what I'm saying is that people should not exaggerate the benefits.

They should see that these potential benefits are very slight and the dangers are ever present.

When you say an early diagnosis, you mean someone who's beginning to see the very early signs of dementia who at any age or at a normal, what they call the sporadic Alzheimer's age of maybe in seventies, usually from 65 to 85.

Yes.

Well, let me say that in my view, Alzheimer's has been subject to some of the same things we see for all kinds of diseases.

The two most important being that care and prevention has sometimes been sacrificed at the altar of cure.

And so the vast majority of funds for research and development

for drug discovery etc has outweighed the emphasis being placed on prevention and care and these are things that can make a big difference in a person's life and experience of the disease and also in trying to forestall the possible terrible effects of alzheimer's so let me put it this way living our best lives