[ExI] Jaw-dropping CWRU Alzheimer's breakthrough?

[spike]

OK so I heard back from a contact whose identity I intentionally conceal.
The short report is this: doctors are being swamped with requests for
bexarotene, and some patients are going on their own and getting it through
various channels.  Doctors are doing their best to compile results, but it
is far more complicated than watching mice making nests.  For starters, bex
is a powerful thyroid suppressant.  About half the patients who take the
meds start to show signs of hypothyroidism, which itself can cause
Alzheimer's-like symptoms, possibly making the patient appear to get worse
if they were already prone to hyperthyroidism.  The patients sometimes cut
themselves off from their regular doctors, which deprives the medical
community and the patient community of valuable data.  The ethical dilemmas
faced by the doctors are maddening to the point of being nearly
overwhelming. 

 

It turns out there are several different things that can cause intermittent
mental dysfunction, and it is crazy difficult to separate and classify
everything in every patient, a far bigger task than doctors can do in a few
minutes a week visits.  Families are so eager for any thread of hope, they
may see signals in the data which are not there, creating reports that are
mistakenly optimistic.  Much if not most of the data may be false positives.
The doctors must compensate for the hope effect, weighing the credibility of
the various family members' reports, which is itself wildly difficult to do.
The best study group would be those who seldom get visits from family
members, for these can be examined by a neutral observer under more
controlled conditions.  Then of course there is the thorny ethical problem
of giving a possibly dangerous medication to a patient who is not fully
capable of making an informed decision.

 

Dr. Landreth made the mouse observations in 2009, and discovered within
minutes all the stuff that has taken us two weeks to realize.  So he has
been struggling with it ever since.  I will put his picture back up on the
piano, and thank evolution I didn't go to medical school.  I sure as hell
wouldn't want to be the doctor making these decisions for others.

 

If I find out anything worth reporting, I will do so.  Good luck to all of
us.

 

spike

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