Will a ‘statin for your brain’ soon be worming its way to the FDA?
If you’ve spent even a handful of months undergoing a cancer treatment, I’m sure it’s an experience you never want to repeat.
Now imagine popping a powerful cancer drug every day for 50 straight years.
If that sounds crazy to you… like the kind of thing no sane person would ever agree to… you’re not going to believe what they’re up to in England these days.
Because British researchers are furiously racing to start marketing a dangerous cancer pill they claim can prevent Alzheimer’s.
It’s the latest scam to get millions of people popping a risky drug they don’t need — one that could quickly turn your life into a round-the-clock nightmare.
But across the pond in Cambridge University, some researchers have come up with something twice as wacky.
And Prof. Michele Vendruscolo is the ringmaster in this circus.
You see, Prof. Vendruscolo has a dream. One where Alzheimer’s disease will be vanquished with the pop of a pill.
And all you have to do is take one of the most toxic cancer drugs around for your entire adult life.
But, unlike a Monty Python episode, this professor isn’t kidding around.
He and his colleagues have just wrapped up a study that they claim proves bexarotene can help stop those sticky beta amyloid plaques from forming in your brain. And you could even start taking it in your 30s.
If you don’t have any personal experience with bexarotene, I hope it stays that way. Aside from causing lots of the common cancer med side effects like vomiting, nausea, and weakness, it’s also been linked to birth defects.
Great idea. Because nobody is having kids in their 30s these days, right?
And if you’re wondering how Prof. Vendruscolo and his colleagues determined that bexarotene was some miracle elixir for your brain, well, that may be the strangest part of the whole story.
They tested the drug on worms and somehow determined that it improved their brainpower. That’s right — worms.
Now, call me crazy, but how is it again that we determine — with any degree of certainty, that is — when a worm is mentally sound? If you’ve ever gone fishing with the things, I’m sure you’ll agree they’re not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.
Be that as it may, Prof. Vendruscolo isn’t slowing his push for bexarotene one bit. He’s even claiming it could be like a new “neurostatin” for your brain.
A word to the wise, professor — if you want to convince somebody that your drug is safe, don’t put “statins” anywhere in the name.
I’ve been telling you for years that the race to develop Alzheimer’s-prevention drugs is a total racket. If you don’t develop Alzheimer’s (and, statistically speaking, most of us don’t), they’ll claim it worked.
And if you do get Alzheimer’s, well, no drug is perfect — and thanks for the 50 years of insurance co-pays.
Certainly, Alzheimer’s is a disease that we all fear. But there’s plenty of science proving that there are safer ways to try and tip the scale in our favor where this devastating disease is concerned. For example:
- Studies have shown that DHA and EPA, two kinds of omega-3s found in fish oil, helped people retain their “cognitive flexibility” (multi-tasking and problem solving).
- One study from the Alzheimer’s Association found that elderly people with memory problems improved significantly after just six months of taking DHA every day.
- Certain kinds of fats — especially the medium-chain fatty acids found in coconut oil — can help “fuel” you brain and even help repair DNA damage.
- Doing more brain “exercises” — whether it’s watching Jeopardy or hitting the New York Times crossword puzzle — has been shown to keep us mentally sharp.
And these natural treatments all sound a lot better to me than opening up Prof. Vendruscolo’s literal can of worms.
Sources:
“The pill that could stop millions getting dementia: ‘Statins for the brain’ may prevent the proteins that cause Alzheimer’s from ever forming” Fiona Macrae, February 1, 2016, The Daily Mail, dailymail.co.uk
