TY  - JOUR
AU  - Garrett, Mario
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/07/16
TI  - Curing Alzheimer’s Disease: Myriad Causes and Myriad Cures Await
JO  - OBM Geriatrics
SP  - 063
VL  - 03
IS  - 03
AB  - Simplifying the cause of Alzheimer’s disease has lulled the public into believing that the search for a cure is within reach. The disease has captured the attention of researchers worldwide, catapulting the disease as the third most funded research interest (after cancer and HIV). But after a century of pharmacological failures in stopping or slowing the disease, there is a need to examine how the simplified cause evolved and to explore alternate approaches to understanding Alzheimer’s disease. Going beyond the narrow definition established by the U.S. National Institute of Aging’s Framework alternate understandings of dementia are emerging. New opportunities exist for cures for specific types of Alzheimer’s disease. We are also gaining a better definition of aging. Although we remain ignorant of what aging is we are learning that attempting a piecemeal approach to curing one disease—Alzheimer’s disease—however significant, does not promote our understanding of aging. Because Alzheimer’s disease is very rare in isolation to other neurological diseases all evidence points to aging as biologically engineered obsolescence. A simplified view of Alzheimer’s disease restricts this neuropathological reality. Hiding under the catchall Alzheimer’s disease and holding clinicians back from exploring these specific disease and their curative measures that await.
SN  - 2638-1311
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.geriatr.1903063
DO  - 10.21926/obm.geriatr.1903063
ID  - Garrett2019
ER  -