re: "...had substantial funding"
When my grandmother succumbed to Alzheimer's, the family decided to donate part of the estate to Alzheimer's research. People will do that sometimes, chip in on funding to try to help find a cure for an incurable disease. Where it goes from there, who knows? Up until then, the most that was figured out from autopsies was that maybe it had something to do with aluminum. So everybody threw their aluminum frying pans out, but now, decades later, Alzheimer's is worse than ever. So that wasn't it.
When my mother got it, many years and zillions of research dollars later, that brought us to Aricept. This is an insecticide that was found to boost Acetylcholine when given to people. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that is analogous to "juice" in a battery. Apparently, turning up the juice can get the sick neurons to give it their all for a while. But what happens if you overcharge a battery? Nothing good, usually. It seems to me that the acetylcholine level is regulated by the body for a reason. Neurons involved in timing involve comparing a metered input to a reference, then firing when the threshold is reached, which resets it. If the reference level of a comparator function for an oscillator gets too far off, it will go into saturation and never trigger. If the other input is too strong it will try to oscillate at too high a frequency (fibrillate) out of range. The heart has such a neural sub-system.
Besides forgetting how to cook, she seemed to lose her time sense. The trouble with a drug like that is it permeates the whole body, not just the brain. She had no trouble with her heart before that but now it kept slowing way down then speeding back up. Finally it slowed down and stopped and never stated back up again.
I just watched another "Alzheimer's Cured!" utube video. The old guy was rave about being helped by another acetylcholine booster, also, taking herbs and fish oil. He was confident that Alzheimer's wasn't going to get him, that his heart would probably go first. Having trouble with his heart now, hmm, what a coincidence.
Newer research has discovered amyloid plaques and tau tangles. It appears linked to Alzheimer's although plaques can also be sometimes found in the brains of people who didn't have Alzheimer's. Lots of research schemes and trials being funded for that now. OK, try to clean up after the cell. Why not. Still, that's addressing a result of the problem, not actually the problem.
The very, very, latest research was a small piece I found very interesting. They were experimenting with bacteria and accidently discovered that a neuron will spit out a tau tangle like a kind of spider-man net to entangle the invader. Appears to be a kind of immune response.
What if these plaques and tangles are the result of a kind of allergic reaction? Like pollen with a regular allergy, there is something subtle in the environment that triggers the cell to start sneezing out tau tangles even though there is no actual invading organism. Accumulate enough snot and a person can choke. And can't people even die from allergies, e.g. peanut allergy.
It could be that Anavex works because it is a kind of tonic that calms the allergic reaction down. Maybe a little like Contac or Nyquel for regular allergies (and colds). Actually, Anavex repairs molecular damage inside the cell, it could be that damage has thrown it into a dire "attack mode". Unlike antihistamines we're not just suppressing immune response. I formed this theory because the sick cells always seem to produce these same plaques, not just random transcription errors.
Another thing mentioned in the old gent video was that aborigines living in the far north never get Alzheimer's . He thought it was the fish oil. Fish oil, yes. But what else do they have? Not much else in the way of vitamins or herbs. In fact, nothing grows. Just pure ice and snow, no air pollution. No environmental contamination. Interesting. Now which of the thousands of possible factors a typical urban / civilization dweller is constantly exposed to might be making neurons sick? What if it turns out to be something modern man can't do without? Maybe there is a genetic factor influencing susceptibility as well but I don't intend to go live in an igloo the rest of my life to find out.
Anavex's unique mode of operation is the key. OK, like a lot of people I took a hit on the share dump. I tend to think of my investment here as a targeted donation. Otherwise, you donate to some foundation and it could end up going to some researchers trying to train brain eating amoebae to eat amyloid plaques or the current dead ends.
Besides helping advance a working solution to be ready by the time I may need it, and helping Alzheimer's sufferers everywhere, I also believe there is a good chance of getting a return as well. Which would be fine.
