What would you do if a person whom you love dearly was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease? First would you truly understand what the doctor was talking about ? Alzheimer’s disease is a disease of dementia. The two are the same disease but people tend to think of them as separate diseases of the aged or someone over 55 years . Alzheimer’s disease is not curable and is a disease of the brain. It attacks a person’s ability to think, their memory and/or their language. One of the main causes of Alzheimer’s is the lost of a brain chemical called acetylcholine. There are several stages of the disease and doctors can slow down the progression of the disease with treatment.
In 1996 the FDA approved the drug “Aricept”. It was approved for mild dementia/Alzheimer's. In 2006 it was approved for patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors found that the medication slows the damage to the brain and helps improve brain activity. It is currently the only drug approved for the disease. The “Tobinick” treatment has not been FDA approved as of yet, but the medical community is having indebt discussion about the treatment and its effectiveness on the disease. The Tobinick treatment involves injecting a chemical called etanerscent into the base of the patient’s brain. Within minutes, marked improvement in the person’s condition is observed. The affects of this treatment was shown on one of the national television morning shows. Each dosage cost approximately $800. The patient in the article had been receiving one dose per week for the last three weeks. The number of treatments the patient required to remain cognizant was not made known to the viewing audience. Would you pay that amount of money out of pocket for someone whom you love?
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