For several years there has been excitement that some blood pressure medications can remove amyloids and treat Alzheimer's disease. Occasionally, people contact me with hopeful and promising stories about a blood pressure medication that might work.
This past week's edition of ALZForum reported on a study to determine if the blood pressure drug nilvadipine would slow cognitive decline. It was a great disappointment that the phase 3 trial showed no improvement in in the study population. Recall that a phase 3 trial is final stage with the largest study population. It's the one required for FDA approval of a treatment.
Not everyone is ready to abandon nilvadipine. Some suggested that there may have been problems with the design of the study. The dose may have been too low, the trial may have started too late in the progress of the disease, or inadequate screening of test subjects meant that the subject population included people who did not have Alzheimer's pathology. But, who knows?
In my book, "Beating the Dementia Monster," I describe what has occurred since 2015 when I first knew I had memory problems. (You can find it on Amazon.com.) I have experienced remarkable improvement, and I’m certain that I can share valuable information with many others. In this second edition I continue my story to 2020 and provide greater understanding of how Alzheimer's advances and why what I did worked.
No comments:
Post a Comment