Complications (1)
- Alzheimer's: Managing sleep problems
Definition (1)
- Early-onset Alzheimer's: When symptoms begin before 65
Risk factors (2)
- Alzheimer's: Is it in your genes?
- Diabetes and Alzheimer's linked
Symptoms (3)
- Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses
- Memory loss: When to seek help
- Alzheimer's or depression: Could it be both?
Tests and diagnosis (3)
- Diagnosing Alzheimer's: An interview with a Mayo Clinic specialist
- SPECT scan
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
Treatments and drugs (3)
- Alzheimer's: Getting the most from medical appointments
- Alzheimer's drugs slow progression of disease
- Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon?
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continued:
Alzheimer's treatments: What's on the horizon?
Antibiotics
A three-month course of antibiotics, specifically doxycycline and rifampin, reduced the rate at which cognitive problems worsened in a group of people who had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The antibiotics appear to interfere with the development of amyloid plaques in the brain.
Hormones
Early studies indicated that hormone replacement therapy, typically prescribed to ease menopausal symptoms, might protect women over the age of 65 against Alzheimer's. But more recent studies not only refute these findings but also suggest that this hormone therapy might even increase the risk of dementia.
The timing of the hormone replacement therapy may be the reason for apparently contradictory results. Some researchers speculate that early hormone therapy, during a woman's 50s, may be protective, while later use becomes harmful.
In men, low testosterone levels have been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers are investigating whether testosterone supplements might help men who have Alzheimer's or are at risk of the disease, but the results have been mixed.
Timeline for answers
New Alzheimer's treatments take time to develop, and then even more studies are needed to establish a treatment's safety and effectiveness. But all this time and effort will eventually pay off. Most researchers expect to see major progress in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's in the next few decades.
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