Minutus

Oh, how i wished i had been able to give my mother lyc when she first started
losing her memory. but some friend of hers didn't trust homeopathy and said
not to give it to her.

Anyway...when my mother started the constant moving around and trying to
escape..wanting to live with me...i was hesitant to give her remedies unless i
was sure of anything..even one thing. I gave her alum because her poop came
out in little black balls. that helped with a better poop. At one point
tarentula helped with her constantly hiding things and loving to dance. at
some point i gave her hyos and she talked non-stop for three days until i
could antidote that. Maybe she continued to need that in a different dose than
30c but i was afraid of giving her that again. When she moved in with me and
i slept with her i would put my hand on her head and the pulse was incredibly
strong. Later, when she got sick..belladonna brought the fever down and away.
I wish i had given her the belladonna when that brain of hers was in such
obvious turmoil..the intense pulsating. ..i would check your mother's head for
that intense pulse..throbbing pulse. All that intense activity she is
showing. I would hurry to try something before the nursing home starts giving
her medication to knock her out.
There is a remedy they talked about on the news ...enbren..for rheumatoid
arthritus...and it has brought alzheimers patients back to reality in
minutes..even later stages.

Carol, much more is made of the possibility of reversing Alzheimer's than the reality of trials suggests. As usual, publicity for the drug you mention, Enbrel, is designed to offer false hope rather than to reflect scientific reality. Following is a critical analysis by Alzheimers Australia's scientific research officer of the research on Enbrel, published in Dementia News on 2 June 2008.

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The case of etanercept (Enbrel)
In 2006, Dr Tobinick and others published a paper on their drug trial of etanercept as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. In light of recent media reporting of Dr Tobinick’s treatment regime, their paper, TNF-alpha Modulation for Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: A 6-Month Pilot Study, is examined below.
Summary of TNF-alpha Modulation for Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: A 6-Month Pilot Study:
In 2005, Dr Tobinick recruited fifteen people to partake in a drug trial for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The participants, whose average age was 76.7 years, had mild to severe Alzheimer's disease, and all were on drug regimes for dementia before and during the study period. A number were also on other drugs that affect the central nervous system.
Dr Tobinick injected etanercept (trade name Enbrel), once a week for six months, into the perispinal spaces (the area around the spinal cord) at the back of the neck of each participant. Etanercept is an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat arthritis and some other conditions. Dr Tobinick claims that the participants steadily improved in four measures of brain function and cognition during the course of treatment.
To illustrate the success of the treatment, Dr Tobinick included a case study of an 82-year-old man whose dementia was so severe at the start of the study that his Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score was 0 (normal is between 25 and 30). Nevertheless, this man was apparently able to give informed consent for treatment. Six months later the man's condition was described as markedly improved. His MMSE had risen from 0 to 4, the greatest improvement seen in the study. Note: any score under 10 indicates severe dementia. [On the basis of a change in score from 0 to 4, the man remained severely demented.]
RO comments
Dr Tobinick’s treatment regime is very contentious and a great deal of discussion about it can be found on the Internet. Here is one link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... imers.html
The following comments refer only to the paper, TNF-alpha Modulation for Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: A 6-Month Pilot Study. Hopefully they will provide a starting point for thought.
There were no control patients receiving placebos in this trial; the participants were not selected at random; and there was no blindedness, meaning that the experimenter knew who was receiving what. In addition, every person's results were included in the data analysis, even if there had been only one follow up visit from the participant (meaning that the outcome of one treatment cannot be known). All of this contravenes acceptable experimental design and renders findings highly questionable.
The study was fully funded by Dr Tobinick, except for the cost of the etanercept, which was supplied by the participants or their families. Having subjects supply their own drugs contravenes acceptable practice in drug trials.
One of the fifteen participants, an 80-year-old woman with severe dementia, died suddenly and without obvious cause during the last week of the trial. An autopsy was not performed; yet Dr Tobinick declared that her death had not resulted from the etanercept injections.
Dr Tobinick claims that his approach allows etanercept to circumvent the blood-brain barrier. (The blood-brain barrier is the term given to special properties of the brain's blood vessels that protect the brain by preventing many foreign molecules, including some drugs, from crossing into the brain.) Dr Tobinick did no imaging studies of his participants to verify this claim.
Dr Tobinick is the holder of patents, both issued and pending, that claim the use of Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha inhibitors, including etanercept [Enbrel], to treat Alzheimer's disease. He also owns stock in Amgen, the manufacturer of etanercept.
It is possible that Dr Tobinick's approach could be effective in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, but on the basis of what has been demonstrated so far, it would seem wise to embrace a healthy scepticism.
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Dementia News generally contains three to four such critical analyses of drugs publicised for their purported benefits for those whose brains are being destroyed by one or another form of dementia. Anybody interested can subscribe to it for free by asking Alzheimers Australia's scientific research officer to put him or her on the Dementia News mailing list: michele.hawkins@alzheimers.org.au .

Cheers --

John
2009/8/10 Carol Orr >