Lecanemab, The Big Alzheimer's Breakthrough?

[Chappychap]

Some exciting news in today's press.

bbc.co.uk/news/health-63749586

A new drug in the battle against Alzheimer's that might, just might, be the turning point. The drug, Lecanemab, slowed the progress of the disease in clinical trials, and despite some nasty side effects was hailed by the Alzheimer's Society as "momentous".

But why is it relevant for this forum?

Because sadly there's a very substantial overlap between heart disease and dementia. To have one is to be at significantly higher risk of the other.

A recent example was the news that the actor Chris Hemsworth was making a documentary about health and genes, as part of the script he was gene tested and discovered he carries two copies of the ApoE4 gene. The news articles I read put this in the context that he was at high risk of dementia. However, I've come across the ApoE4 gene before when I was tested for genes that increase the risk of heart disease. Apo E4 was one of the main genetic culprits, happily I don't carry it but anywhere up to about 13% of the population will carry at least some version of it.

However, at least from the perspective of heart disease, there's also some good news about the Apo E4 gene. It also illustrates the blurred line between life style and genetics. Because, even if you carry both copies of Apo E4, you can bring your risk back down to almost that of the general population with a pretty brutal life style regime. You'd have to almost eliminate alcohol and reduce your dietary fat intake to extremely low levels, in effect you'd have to be a tee-total vegan. A lot of people would find that a grim prospect, but I guess dementia's an even grimmer prospect.

And ApoE4 is just one genetic marker, there are about fifty others that indicate higher heart disease risk, and the majority of them also point to increased dementia risk.

So for many of us on this forum, Lecanemab, and all the other Alzheimer's drugs that are sure to follow, might grant us an old age far healthier than nature otherwise planned for us. I for one think that's a very cheerful headline indeed.

Good luck!

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All sounds positive to me and that's the best type of sound, thank you

[ParrotLover22]

Hi. I heard this on the ITV News tonight. It is a brilliant breakthrough. My Sister died of this horrible, horrendous, illness. It is just SO sad, more for the Family than for the Person, who has it. I am 'Over the Moon' that they have now found a potential treatment!!