Check these two companies out, I have personally ordereDAapproved.com

Current Alzheimer Research

Dimebon

This one is getting all the “Press” right now, it seems everybody knows about it and so far it has promising results. Used as an antihistamine in Russia for many years, it also protects against brain cell death. Dimebon targets mitochondria (the cell’s power generator). Phase 3 results show significant improvement in all the key aspects of Alzheimer’s, including thinking, memory, behavior and overall function. Results have been published in “Lancet” July 2008 (Lancet in England is the equivalent of the New England Journal of Medicine in the U.S.). Rumor is Dimebon may be on the market as soon as next year.

Rember (Methylthioninium chloride)

Early research is promising, as researchers announced that the compound appears to slow and even halt the progress of Alzheimer’s. It does this by dissolving tangles of tau protein inside brain cells and preventing their accumulation, stabilizing the disease progression in patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer’s over a period of one year. Over a longer period of 19 months, researchers saw an 81% slowing of the disease. Rember may be on the market as early as 2012.

AL-108

This drug, like Rember, also addresses the problem of neurofibrillary tangles, also interfering with the formation of tangles by affecting the tau protein. However, this drug is administered as a nasal spray. Which brings up a rarely discussed aspect of drug trials: not all drug trials involve taking a pill! Some are nasal sprays, eye drops, some are even administered intravenously. The good news is results with AL-108 took far less time than Rember. Researchers reported a 62.4% improvement in memory with no side effects in only 4 months time.

Lupron (Leuprolide, Memryte)

Don’t you just love the way they name these drugs? Memryte (memory right?) or Rember (Remember?).  Lupron is currently an approved drug for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. But now they are looking at it for Alzheimer’s because it alters production of beta-amyloid in the brain. Beta-amyloid, in a nutshell, is the main material that plaques are made of. The theory is, no beta-amyloid = no plaques = no Alzheimer’s Disease.

Funny story: the connection between Lupron and Alzheimer’s was discovered accidentally, when the wife of a metastatic cancer patient who was receiving Lupron told the doctor that the drug worked well on his cancer – and his Alzheimer’s appeared to improve, too. (Wow, a doctor that listens! What a concept)

Immunoglobulins

Basically these are antibodies already in our blood. These antibodies are used by our immune system to hunt down and eliminate bacteria. This is one of those treatments that is being administered intravenously. It is still in the early stages of research, and larger studies are forming as you read this.

Rosiglitazone (Avandia)

One of the little know facts about drug approval by the FDA is that Pharmaceutical companies spend 10’s of millions of dollars bringing a drug to market. Therefore it’s safe to assume they have to be pretty confident of success before they decide to start a new drug trial. Furthermore, you can imagine that the process is complicated and technical. Let me give you an example, when they apply for a new drug approval, they have to be very specific about which disease, or condition they are going to test for. That makes sense. But occasionally after a drug comes to market it may start showing effectiveness on conditions that it was not originally intended for. But if they want doctors to legitimately prescribe their established medication for this new condition they have to start the drug trial process all over again from scratch.

Thus is the case with Lupon mentioned above (currently approved for prostrate cancer), as well as this one Avandia. Avandia is currently on the market for type 2 diabetes, in diabetics it enables their cells to use the hormone insulin more efficiently. But they now think it might affect the brain inflammation seen in Alzheimer’s patients, so they are starting new drug trials for it.

Alzheimer’s Vaccines

“Another method for targeting Alzheimer’s comes in the form of a vaccine that uses antibodies from the body’s own immune system to attack and destroy beta-amyloid and clear out plaques in the brain, or to eliminate clumps of tau protein (neurofibrillary tangles) in the brain that kill neurons responsible for memory”. Phase 3 studies are also starting this year, and they look promising. * (Oops, hold that thought, just yesterday as I was finishing this article there was story making the rounds that a prominent research physician was quoted in the press as saying that he has serious doubts that beta-amyloid is the cause of Alzheimer’s and that researchers are missing the boat, and spending a lot of time and money for nothing. Time will tell…)

Gene Therapy

This is another of those methods that have been around, getting perfected for years. It is very complicated, and involves genetically altering your own cells to produce nerve growth factor (NGF) and injecting these altered cells into the brain to slow the destruction of brain cells. They may sound creepy, but naturally produced NGF has amazing promise for many different illness and diseases. Some researchers are predicting extending the life span by decades when NGF is perfected.

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor

Researchers are making impressive claims with this one. “This compound has the potential not only to slow degenerative memory loss, but also to reverse the process and bring back lost memories”. The HDAC inhibitor compound was first formulated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “The research suggests that people with dementia might not completely lose their memories, but that the memories might be stored away somewhere that is inaccessible. The clinical trials are expected to assess whether ADAC inhibitors can safely and effectively improve cognitions and possibly reverse memory loss in humans.

This concludes the long list of drug trials that are out there for Alzheimer’s Disease. Can you imagine…this is just Alzheimer’s? I have heard of studies for just about every other major disease, and even for conditions that I did not know were a problem. For example I read about a study that was supposed to make eye-lashes grow longer and thicker.  I don’t see anyone dieing of thinning eye-lashes, but I certainly see where something like that would make a fortune.

Nevertheless, if you know someone that is interested in drug trials please refer them to this site: copy and past this link: http://tinyurl.com/drugtrials.

Source: Special Report on: Combating Memory Loss (common problems and treatments) by Massachusetts General Hospital & the editors of Mind, Mood & Memory.

Now that you have read the earlier posts…what’s that? You are still reading here? No! You need to really stop, go read, then come back, ok? ok.

Great, now let’s get started. You see that box below: asking for your name, email, city and condition?  That is really important if you want my help. I get a lot of requests, and people sometimes forget to say where they are writing from, or for what condition they are researching drug trials.  You are ok, but other people; well they are stressed out and they sometimes forget, you know how it is.

So now I insist everyone do this. One, because you will be surprised to learn that there are hundreds of centers that do drug trials, and not just big Universities, but lot’s of private companies too.  And they pick and choose what drugs they are going to test.  So that’s why I need city and condition.

Name and email, that’s for me. I am happy to help people, but I am very busy and all I ask is for your contact information and I will help you for free.  But don’t worry, I would never dream of sharing your information with another soul. It’s safe with me, and it goes no further than me. OK?

So now please fill out the box…even if you don’t have a condition and you just want to say hello or make a comment or ask a general question…just put n/a in the boxes for city and condition. (still do name and email).

You may not see this blog updated that often, but that’s because I answer most people personally. I rarely broadcast my answers publically. What you will see here, is the occasional product or service recommendation. Most of my readers are caregivers, and most of the caregivers I have contact with are caring for someone with Alzheimer’s Disease. Because I have over 15 years helping older adults and their caregivers, I kinda know what you are dealing with, and I know what kinda things could be a benefit for you.

One of the best free resources you use is The Alzheimer’s Association they have an amazing library of material, and your local chapter might have some grant funding to help you out with some respite care!

Anyway, thats not the point. The point is, that medication went through a drug trial! Which just goes to show that there are drug trials for everything under the sun.

In the meantime let me do some cross promotion: Finding a medication that can cure an illness or reduce the symptoms is important. But most of us have an opportunity to do something about our health, so that we do not get sick in the first place. To that end, I am happy to report a program that that teaches you the exact herbs and suppliments that you need to bullet proof your immunity (and the ones that you might be taking right now that are aging you rapidly). Please take a look. Its a jammed pack video Longevity Now Program

Donahue Vanderhider, MSG

p.s. If you are dealing with Alzheimer’s in your family, please remember to check out my website www.caregiverrelief.com

These are all black and white criteria. Either you are or you do, or you don’t. And these conditions are verifiable. Researchers can get your medication record from your doctor; drug study clinics will personally administer the mini-mental exam. So there is no “faking it” for most clinical trials. That’s fine and dandy. But there are other trials and tests that have ’subjective’ criteria, which can be made up or falsified.

Why would anybody falsify their condition or lie to get into a drug study, that seems silly doesn’t it? The answer is: for the money. That’s right; people get paid to participate in these studies.  Sometimes it’s enough money to make it worthwhile for some people to cheat or lie. In one case, a couple of young women responded to an ad in the paper looking for people with depression. They saw an opportunity to make some easy cash and fabricated the symptoms of depression. But since there is no way to definitively test for depression, they were able to fool the researchers for a while.

What a shame, for most people, getting paid is a bonus. They are excited to have an opportunity to try a cutting  edge medication that can potentially improve their health. It doesn’t cross their minds to do this for the money.  Nevertheless, it’s there. The pharmaceutical companies provide a stipend for the  participants to help with  their time and expenses.  Sometimes it’s a lot money, sometimes its a little. Usually, it’s in direct proportion to the invasiveness of the procedure and frequency in which the patient has to return to the clinic.

So we have potential financial abuse which makes researchers wary of advertising for drug studies, and then there are strict guidelines by the FDA which regulates every aspect of human drug trial. So even when a research firm is offering financial assistance and compensation for participation they are limited in how they can present that compensation. As I understand it every marketing campaign needs to be submitted to FDA and approved.

Are you still interested in participating in drug trial? Wondering about the mini-mental exam, which is in 100% of  drug trials involving dementia, Alzheimer’s and other mental aliments? Next time I will discuss and review the mini-mental exam in detail and explain how it has become the benchmark for measuring mental status not just in drug trials but in hospitals, clinics and offices. For a 30 item test that only takes 10 minutes to administer it carries a lot a weight. Ironically, the test is so simple that a lay-person could give the test to another person without too much difficulty, with a fairly high degree of accuracy.

Tell you what, I will give you a free copy of the test, with instructions, when you fill in the query boxes  below. So everyone that fills out the query boxes will get a free mini mental exam form. If you are interested in the  test, but you are not interested in finding about drug trials, just type in mini mental in the box.

Respectfully, Donahue Vanderhider, MSG

p.s.   See you next time, and don’t miss out on the next newsletter from www.caregiverrelief.com, they don’t come out that often, but when they do they have a amazing timely information.

And if you are ready to change your health once and for all, please go look at David Wolfe “Longevity Now” program  I think its launching this week! If I read the materials right, there are only a limited amount of packages available, rumor is it will sell out in a day.

As I understand it there are several phases to clinical trials, only the 3rd and 4th phases involve human subject taking the medicine.  All human studies are done in a double blind. Which means, roughly, that one group of clients are getting the medicine and another group are not.  What makes it a double blind is that the client does not know if he/she is getting the medicine or a placebo, they are “blind” to it.  In addition, the clinicians that are giving the medicine and observing the results also do not know who is getting the medicine.  They are “blind” to who is getting the medicine, and therefore cannot bias their observations.

Usually, if a study has reached to the 3rd or 4th phase of the study, they are getting very positive results. The 3rd phase is usually with a small group of subjects, because they are the first people to take the drug and they want to limit side effects if they occur.  If the 3rd phase is successful, they move to the 4th phase with a much larger sample size.

More later…

If you have question or are interested in a drug trial, on any subject please fill out the form below and I will respond to you personally.

I was like everybody else, the only time I found out what was going on in the world of medicine was when I read about a new drug that was showing amazing results. But of course at that point the study was over and the results were being published. (and the drug was still unavailable!)

Personally, I think that if someone in my family came down with a serious disease (god forbid) I would go to the ends of the earth and spare no expense to find it for them. If you are like me, then you have come to the right place. Because if you found this site, then you will soon know what I learned, and I will make sure you find a drug trial in your home town.

My old friend Chuck, it turned out, had started a very successful company that does drug trials right here in southern California. I asked him a million questions over lunch, and then I brought him and his people to my residents and their families for a presentation, and immediately had families signing up to get their loved ones on studies. And now I want to share this information with you and your family.

Let’s start with a few…

COMMON MYTHS

• You have to be referred by a doctor or hospital.

FALSE: You don’t need a doctor or anybody else’s approval.

• You or your loved one have to be very sick or even terminally ill to qualify.

FALSE: Most drug companies that are trying to get their medications approved by the FDA
want people at the earliest stages of the illness, because they are the ones most likely to
respond positively to the treatment.

• It costs a lot of money in medical and related expenses to be in a study.

FALSE: While the drug trial does have very specific criteria for participants, if you meet
the criteria they will move mountains to help you get and stay in the study, this often includes
a financial stipend to cover your time and expenses.

• After the study, even if it works well they stop the drug and you have to wait along with everyone else for it to come to market.

FALSE: Most studies will offer the participants to continue on the medication  indefinitely and for free , in what is called an “open study”.

• Most of these drugs don’t work, and they are very dangerous.

FALSE: These companies spend millions of dollars on research before they even get close to the final
stages where they are having human trials. Because of the huge expenses they only purse medications
that are extremely promising.  For example Chuck’s company was involved in the following drugs
being approved for market: Ambien, Abilify, Cymbalta, Namenda, Aricept, Lexapro, Motrin, Prozac, and
Zantac to name just a few.

• These drugs are extremely risky and the side effects can be worse than the disease they are meant to treat.

FALSE: They spent 10’s of millions of dollars and many years researching this medication, only the drugs
that are the most promising are brought to trials. Yes there are potential side effects, but remember
there are potential side effects with drugs that are already on the market. There is always an element of
risk,  and you take that risk every day that you take so much as an aspirin.  Nevertheless, participants are
very closely monitored and if they experience any side effects they are addressed immediately, and
given the problem  potentially removed from the study.

Look, I can go on and on, but I think you are getting the picture. Here is this wonderful opportunity to get the most cutting edge medications, long before it comes on the market. Not only that but you get the medication for free. No, change that, you get the medication free AND they pay you for your time.

I know people that would never dream of going on one of these studies. They think of it as huge foolish risk.  And I know others that, facing a certain dismal future with their disease, will leap at anything that might help.

I think, that if you have read this far, you are definitely of the ladder group.

If you want more information please leave me your contact information, and short description of your situation, I ask that because it may be that others have the same question and it saves on repeat questions.

Please feel free to check out my main website www.caregiverrelief.com  It is loaded with content! It is currently the only way to get on my mailing list.  Go to the “newsletter” sign-up page and…well, sign up. I send out an amazing newsletter about once a month, and I pour everything I can think of that is useful to you into it.  You can also see my other blog at www.caregiverhelp.blogspot.com or read my articles at www.ezine.com