Not a new drug: Alzheimer's breakthrough
(Etanercept: anti-arthritic drug)
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An injection that dramatically relieved the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within minutes would qualify as the discovery of the decade. That is exactly what was claimed yesterday for an experimental treatment being tested in America.
Scientists at the Institute for Neurological Research at the University of California have treated around 50 patients at a private clinic by injecting an anti-arthritic drug, etanercept, into the spinal column in the neck and then tilting the patients to encourage the drug to flow to the brain.
They claim 90 per cent respond to the treatment, usually within minutes, and have released videos of patients to prove it.
In one, a nurse sits down with an 82-year-old patient, Marvin Millar, who frowns and mumbles incoherently as she asks him identify everyday objects such as a bracelet and a pencil, which he is unable to do.
But five minutes after being injected with etanercept – according to the film which was supplied and edited by the clinic – he greets his wife. Visibly shocked, she says he has not recognised her for years. Mr Miller then hugs her. The researchers said improvement usually continued with weekly injections until it reached a plateau at about three months. Some patients had been taking it for three years. But they have only published details of 15 patients in a pilot study. Read more: independent.co.uk
The food challenge is the most reliable test
Get some moms with young kids together, and you're likely to hear stories about suspected allergies to everything from peanuts to potatoes. Sorting out the true food allergies from the false ones can be tough, and new guidelines issued Monday are intended to provide more direction to physicians. The guidelines come from food allergy experts led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They specifically rule out attempts to diagnose a food allergy solely by skin-prick or blood tests. Dr. Jill Poole, an allergist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said those commonly used tests can produce false positives that result in children and other patients giving up foods that would actually cause them no harm. “You can't base your medical decision on it,'' she said. Those tests, however, may be combined with a medical history and physical exam and, if needed, an oral food challenge, to arrive at a diagnosis, the guidelines say. Currently, doctors use a broad range of criteria to diagnose and define food allergies. Read more: omaha.com
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