New Alzheimer's drug

[Lilith7]

Looks promising so far, & slows decline.


https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66221116

[b]"A new drug, donanemab, is being hailed as a turning point in the fight against Alzheimer's, after a global trial confirms it slows cognitive decline.[/b]

The antibody medicine helps in the early stages of the disease by clearing a protein that builds up in the brains of people with this type of dementia.
Although not a cure, charities say the results in the journal JAMA mark a new era where Alzheimer's can be treated.

The UK's drugs watchdog has started assessing it for possible NHS use.
The drug works in Alzheimer's disease, not in other types of dementia, such as vascular dementia.

Mike Colley, who is 80, is one of only a few dozen patients in the UK to take part in the global trial. He and his family spoke exclusively with the BBC.

Mike gets an infusion each month at a clinic in London and says he is "one of the luckiest people you'll ever meet".

Donanemab, made by Eli Lilly, works in the same way as lecanemab - developed by companies Eisai and Biogen - [b]which created headlines around the world[/b] when it was proven to slow the disease.

Although extremely promising, these drugs are not risk-free treatments.
Brain swelling was a common side-effect in up to a third of patients in the donanemab trial. For most, this resolved without causing symptoms. However, two volunteers, and possibly a third, died as a result of dangerous swelling in the brain."

[Oh_hunnihunni]

   
Naturally, I am hoping this has ramifications for future MS treatments...

[R2x1]

Without a brain to swell, side effects can be put aside for me.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Methinks the gentleman protest 'th too much...

[Lilith7]

Methinks the gentleman protest 'th too much...

Indeed - he just caused me to splutter a perfectly good cuppa everywhere, too.

[R2x1]

Methinks the gentleman protest 'th too much...

Not a protest - - just a freely and democratically expressed opinion.

I got rites ya know.

---

"Indeed - he just caused me to splutter a perfectly good cuppa everywhere, too."

If that was China tea, i apologise profoundly. If it was India tea, you should be thanking me

Biased? Me?

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Dilmah. And none of that smelly bergamot thank you. Oh and milk and half a sugar if it is your turn to make it...

[R2x1]

If it was China tea you wouldn't need milk and sugar to make it taste like something it isn't . .

[Lilith7]

Methinks the gentleman protest 'th too much...

Not a protest - - just a freely and democratically expressed opinion.

I got rites ya know.

---

"Indeed - he just caused me to splutter a perfectly good cuppa everywhere, too."

If that was China tea, i apologise profoundly. If it was India tea, you should be thanking me

Biased? Me?

Dilmah, which is all I use these days. Its a good cuppa & I like what they're doing.

[zqwerty]

Dilmah, Kenya Bold, very good.

One teabag in a large mug, add boiling water, dash of milk, prefer calcium re-enforced, large teaspoon of soft brown sugar.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Trying to give up the slosh of milk and the hint of sweetness is even harder than ditching nicotine.

I have cut back enough lovely things.

[R2x1]

Giving up nicotine is one of the easiest things to do. (I should know, having done it hundreds of times.) Last time - about 14 years back, a friend said "R2, why you smoke?" I looked at the packet - over half full. I tossed it in a bin and replied "I can't remember, so i don't smoke now." And i haven't. Giving up dark mock tea was MUCH easier. I got a contract doing Xmas shutdown work on a medium size factory, moving a boiler, installing a new gas main and converting a large machine from oil circulating heat to steam heat. In Xmas shutdowns, electricity is not usually reliable, so no fridge, so no milk. Without the efforts of cleaners, ants have their Xmas holidays in the factory, so no sugar. Without milk and sugar, you can actually taste what Indian tea is like, so that was out. Water was usually available or BYO and a Thermette is a pretty reliable source of heat. So, coffee - but not most instant brands - or China tea was the surviving choice.
Logical.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Easiest huh? You weren't addicted then.

Took me nine attempts...

[R2x1]

I was probably not addicted, but I was definitely hooked. I had at one stage quit for about three years. Alas, the @#$*& Gov't started bombarding me with hints, messages and instructions on how to quit. Naturally, I had to take notice of the Gov't instructions, so I started again and told them so, emphatically. I guess that was about as productive for them as Orange Cones are now, but I guess the Greens were happy that "at least they tried".
One thing that helped was a suggestion that I spent my smoking cash on model aircraft instead. I had no trouble with that concept; I may have got a bit over enthusiastic - I'm still giving away model flying stuff.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Sounds like one of my big pantries. It is my art materials and tools stash...

I really must get on to clearing that lot out, but I am a great procrastinator about those things.

[Lilith7]

It only took me one attempt, if I don't count the one back in the 70's when we lived on a commune & which didn't take, since it was a half hearted attempt - & everyone else smoked so probably doomed to failure.

Hard as hell to manage to actually give up at last about 10 years ago but the Scots ancestry helped when I thought how much it was costing me - & how much those utter bastards at big tobacco were making.

I'm supposed to be clearing out my workroom - & now & then I manage to do a bit, have found a home for leftover sequins & beads from dance costumes - youngest granddaughter wants them. But as she's the only one who doesn't live in the same part of the country, it'll have to be posted eventually.

[Olive]

Lilith, I have a similar history.  Tried a few times to give up when I was living in a communal house with several other smokers, we used to cut cigarettes in half to share...   Then decades later decided to quit properly, read the Allan Carr book and followed his instructions, have never smoked again and after about a week never even wanted to.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

My success was down to my Mum. We were a three generation household of women and she got bronchitis every year having smoked for a lifetime. Her GP told her that year was her last if she didn't stop, so we started Jan 1st 1996 and did it together. Without that mutual support I doubt either of us would have managed it. She got another fourteen years, but eight of them were hard with vascular dementia.

I still miss both her, and smokes. But I won't start again, too expensive.

[Lilith7]

Lilith, I have a similar history.  Tried a few times to give up when I was living in a communal house with several other smokers, we used to cut cigarettes in half to share...   Then decades later decided to quit properly, read the Allan Carr book and followed his instructions, have never smoked again and after about a week never even wanted to.

I read that as well & it helped. I was thinking of giving up & had heard of his book & when one morning there was a box of books outside one of the local church community centres & the Alan Carr book was in it, I decided it was fate at work, took it home & after much anguish, finally succeeded.

Yep, I think it isn't a good idea trying to stop when everyone around you is still smoking, just too difficult - if only we'd known then how bad it was for our health we might have all managed to at least try, but big tobacco didn't see fit to share what they knew, the bastards.

[Lilith7]

I'm now wondering that if this is effective, it might be possible to give small preventative doses to those of us who make it into say, our 60's, in order to remove the protein crap from our ageing brains.
Fingers crossed that future generations will have a cure or treatment.