Incredible Alzheimer's hope as doctor who treats disease says new treatments ... trends now

A leading Alzheimer's disease expert said there is new hope for treating the deadly diagnosis that previously meant a 'death sentence' for patients. 

Doctor Marc E. Agronin, who has been a geriatric psychiatrist in Miami since 1999 and is an advocate for purposeful aging, claimed that a host of new methods of treating Alzheimer's disease may add years to patients' lives. 

Advances in early detection and management have changed the way patients can live with the disease. The shifting methods include new treatments, therapies, medication and lifestyle adjustments.  

'Thanks to new developments in the early detection and management of Alzheimer's, as well as new medications, many patients can slow the course of the disease and boost their well-being,' Dr. Agronin wrote in the Wall Street Journal. 

'The result is that more Alzheimer's patients are able to live relatively normal lives for much longer than previously—several years, at least, and often longer.' 

Previously, a diagnosis often signaled the beginning of a swift decline, but now, patients can seek interventions to prevent or alleviate symptoms.

The shift is largely prompted by emerging research on the cognitive benefits of lifestyle adjustments. 

'Until just a few years ago, the typical work-up for Alzheimer's disease began when someone walked into my office with noticeable symptoms,' Agronin said in a Wall Street Journal article. 'The advice: Get your affairs in order, and fairly quickly.' 

'But now, many work-ups begin with patients seeking to improve their lives by either preventing or lessening mild symptoms, prompted by a host of new findings about the cognitive benefits of lifestyle interventions, as well as conditions that can exacerbate decline.'

The lifestyle changes patients are encouraged to take include quitting smoking, moderating alcohol consumption, improving diet, regular exercise, managing depression, and keeping mentally active.

'That different face is increasingly the face of Alzheimer's - the result of a quiet revolution in the way doctors treat the disease, as well as the way patients live with it.'

Agronin's message to his patients is that treatment is not a race but a marathon. 

'Preventing or ameliorating mild symptoms isn't a race but a marathon over decades, and it requires consistent, longstanding lifestyle changes starting as early as possible in adulthood,' he said. 

'What's more, thanks to our newfound ability to detect the disease early, we can start that marathon far sooner than in the past.' 

With a focus on early detection and management, patients now have the opportunity to slow the disease's progression and improve their well-being significantly.

Biomarker tests can provide early indications of Alzheimer's, allowing for advanced interventions and participation in clinical trials for potential treatments. 

'If someone in her situation had come to me at the start of my career, there wasn't much I could do at such an early stage other than speculate on the diagnosis and monitor symptoms as they unfolded,' Dr. Agronin said. 

'Now there are tests for several physical indicators of Alzheimer's, called biomarkers, that can reveal whether there are the telltale toxic proteins of beta-amyloid and tau in the brain.'

Dr. Agronin explained:  'When combined with other information, these results can provide a relatively definitive diagnosis of early-stage Alzheimer's disease and enable the person to make lifestyle changes, as well as start new treatments or clinical trials right away to attempt to alter its course.' 

New immunotherapies, like lecanemab, also offer promise in slowing cognitive decline, creating optimism for a more extended period of quality life for patients.

In addition to lecanemab, there are many other novel treatment approaches in clinical trials that show hope in changing the course of the disease, he noted.  

'The discussion we have about what a diagnosis of Alzheimer's means in such an early stage is shaped by the fact that many affected individuals are still working, traveling, parenting and even taking care of their own aging parents, and they want to continue engaging in all of these roles and activities as long as possible.'

'I now tell my patients that by slowing the course of an already slow-moving disease, these new treatments could extend their current quality of life even longer.'

Patients are seeking help at younger ages and reshaping conversations around Alzheimer's to focus on maintaining an active and fulfilling life for as long as possible.

The growing awareness and treatment evolution also helps foster a collaborative and hopeful approach between patients, families, and healthcare providers, Dr. Agronin emphasized. 

'This hopeful message often prompts a more engaged and happier partnership with the patient and family, since we are shifting from an era of passively watching the disease's inexorable decline to one in which we are actively altering its course until, we hope, something better comes along.'

 'As this early detection and new therapies become more refined and widely known, I am seeing more people come to me in their 50s and 60s—much younger than the average patient I saw when I first started our memory clinic over 20 years ago.'

In February, a study in mice suggested that zapping the brain with electrical currents could prevent dementia symptoms up to 20 years before they start.

Researchers in Tel Aviv, Israel, found they could stop the decay of brain cells and prevent memory loss and cognitive decline when they targeted the areas of rodents' brains that are damaged during Alzheimer's.

Once a month, electrodes that were surgically attached to their brains, the team delivered low-level electrical

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