Alzheimer's Disease - Editor's Choice

In China, they have been testing GV-971, which is derived from a specific form of seaweed that is abundant there, for many years for use as a treatment for AD. They have finished initial testing in China and GV-971 is now available there for people with AD. Currently, they are also doing additional testing in North America and Canada, but that testing is still ongoing. Here is a link to a description of GV-971 and what previous GV-971 studies have shown regarding its usefulness for AD :

https://www.alzdiscovery.org/uploads/cognitive_vitality_media/Sodium_Oligomannate_(GV-971).pdf

GV-971 has several methods of action, but interestingly, one of its main methods of action is manipulation of the gut microbiome to reduce neural inflammation and protect neurons, while reducing oxidative stress.

Interestingly they are just starting testing GV-971 for Parkinson's disease also as noted in this report :

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/green-valley-obtains-ind-approval-from-us-fda-for-sodium-oligomannates-global-phase-ii-clinical-trial-in-treating-parkinsons-disease-301461838.html

This is really good news because the currently available drugs for AD are only marginally effective in mild to moderate AD and their usefulness can dwindle fairly quickly in some PD patients or offer no benefit in others. Add in the known side effects associated with one of the more common drugs in this class of drugs, Aricept, and you quickly start to realize the importance of GV-971. Here is a link to side effects seen in some Aricept users :

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/aricept-side-effects.html

It is worth noting that they are considering further studies at even higher dosing in the future to find out if higher dosing can cause further or better response in people with AD. As far as I am aware, this is the first new drug that has come available for AD in many years in the whole world. In the human trials so far for GV-971 at the currently prescribed dose, showed a safety profile similar to the placebo group. In the trials for GV-971, it showed clear and sustained benefit when compared to the placebo group from week four right through to the 32nd week or trial end.

They have not said when the US and Canadian studies will be completed, but as soon as they are, GV-971 may become a reality here once the FDA approves it. For now, China has already added it to their "National Drug Reimbursement List " (NDRL) and reduced the price by 60%. The original price was RMB 895 ($140.16 usd) and was lowered to RMB 296 ( $46.50 usd). Generally, the US pays more for pharmaceuticals, so it will likely be significantly more than these numbers when it comes available here.

Art

https://www.alz.org/facts/

With the Baby Boomers now in the senior citizen range, the number of people with AD is expected to reach unprecedented proportions that could potentially bankrupt are medical system because of the tremendous costs involved in the care of AD patients. These costs will continue to rise over time.

Given the poor prognosis for AD patients in general with the currently available meds that are unable to stop the disease process, we need alternatives to act as adjunctive help to go along with the prescription meds.

On that note, the following study shows that a 12 week course of a specific probiotic treatment was able to improve some disease symptoms in the treated patients. What is good about this study is that it is an actual human study as opposed to a mouse or rat study because those models do not always equate to humans in a like manner. A good example of this was the niacinamide mouse study that was done at the University Of Irvine California that showed almost complete reversal of AD symptoms in the AD model mice. The results were so good that a human study was done shortly after the results from the mouse study were released. Unfortunately the human study showed only marginal benefit at best for people with AD.

Here is a link to the probiotic / AD study:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5105117/

Another great point to this study is that the positive results were seen in just 12 weeks! It makes you wonder if a longer study period would have produced even better results. Another great positive to this studies is that other health parameters were improved along with cognition!

Probiotics have a good safety profile, are readily available and the ones used in this study are not the exotic ones which are almost impossible to find when you search. This is great news for people living with this horrible disease that affects not only the patient, but their family, friends and caregivers negatively.

Art

If you want just niacinamide with no additives at all and you are going to open capsules to divide your doses, you can just order pure niacinamide bulk powder such as this which should be better and cheaper:

https://www.amazon.com/BulkSupplements-Vitamin-Niacinamide-Powder-grams/dp/B00GW2LXWO/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1494483459&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=pure+bulk+niacinamide&th=1

For people who are planning to take multiple doses per day, as some people have reported doing for Alzheimer's Disease, here is a method that might make it easier to take.

Niacinamide is water soluble, so if you are willing to do the math, you could potentially figure the total dose you want to take per week and dissolve it into water, juice, a sports drink etc.. As a basic example, let's say you want to take a total of 1,000mg of niacinamide per day in 10 divided doses or 100 mg per dose.

You would multiply the 1,000 mg daily dose times 7 to get the weekly dose of 7,000mg. Take those 7,000 mg as weighed on a cheap digital scale and dissolve it into a liter of water, juice, gatorade etc. The liter needs to be divided into 70 equal doses of 14.285 ml or just under a half ounce and each dose should deliver approximately 100 mg of niacinamide. Measure out one dose and pour it into something like a shot glass.

Make a mark on the shot glass that is equal to 14.285 ml and this is where you will fill the shot glass to for each dose. You would take ten of these partial shots each day.

By the end of 7 days the bottle should be empty. There are a couple of variations on this, but it will be easier to drink this mix than take capsules all day long and you won't be getting all of the fillers and gelatin capsules.......just the niacinamide.

Art

Six years ago my mother was diagnosed by a very reputable specialist with Alzheimer's. At the time she had difficulty remembering things she had done that day. She would ask the same questions over a lot. She would say things that did not make sense and she had become quite angry and irrational. The doctor told us that her condition would continue to deteriorate and that within about 3 years she would not be able to function on her own (even at that time she needed full-time caregivers to remind her what to do).

I am a holistic health practitioner and so I am familiar with a lot of supplements, herbs and foods to cure different conditions. So I started her on some of the supplements that I knew about for Alzheimer's. These included Phosphatidylserine (PS), L-Carnitine, Tumeric, Ginkgo and vinpocetine as well as a multi-vitamin. Two years after she started this protocol she went back for a follow up appointment with the Alzheimer's specialist who had originally diagnosed her. He was quite surprised that her condition had remained the same for two years and not progressed as he said it would. I believe that these supplements halted the progression of the Alzheimer's. But we really wanted to see improvement.

Here is where the cure comes in!

I had read about studies done using Niacinamide to cure Alzheimer's. The studies suggested giving it in small doses many times throughout the day to keep constant levels in the bloodstream. It suggested giving an oral dose of Niacinamide 12 times a day! This is very impractical for my mother who struggles to take all of her other pills. So we ended up giving her a 500 mg. capsule three times a day with meals.

At this time I had also read about studies showing that high doses of vitamin A actually dissolves Beta Amyloid deposits in lab animals. The study found that it not only dissolved the deposits, but it did so in a matter of hours! The article I read which was published by a doctor recommended a form of vitamin A called “Mycellized A" in liquid form as this is better absorbed. So I also started her on the mycellized vitamin A.

After starting her on these two new supplements (Niacinamide 500 mg 3 times a day, and Mycellized Vitamin A 100, 000 mg. a day for 3 weeks, (then cut back to 20, 000 mg a day maintenance) we noticed a big improvement.

Later we added a couple of other things which I believe helped her as well. One of them is Coconut oil. The other is to make sure that she does not have a bladder infection. My mother is prone to UTI's and we noticed that whenever she got one that her mental symptoms would get much worse. So we have to make sure that those are kept in check. As long as we are doing all of these things she does great.

It has been 6 years since her diagnosis and instead of progressing her Alzheimer's is gone for the most part. She is now back to her old self. Her thinking and cognition are good. She remembers almost everything about her day. She rarely repeats questions, her attitude is so much better. She is not angry or unreasonable anymore. She actually has conversations with me now where she can give me helpful advice on problems I may have. She's back to acting like my mom again! To recap, I feel that what really helped her the most has been the Niacinamide and the Mycellized vitamin A, and secondarily the coconut oil and preventing UTI's. Please try these as they may work for you as well.

A note about UTI's: It is quite well known by nursing home staff that when an elderly person gets a UTI that it really affects them mentally. It can cause confusion, anger, and unreasonable behaviors. This is important-elderly people do not always have the typical symptoms on a UTI (frequent or burning urination, etc.) This is why it is so important if an elderly person is struggling with mental symptoms, especially if they come on suddenly that they go to a doctor and have a urine test done to check for a UTI. Usually they will perform a dipstick test on the urine at the doctor's office to check for bacteria and traces of blood. But if the dipstick test does not find anything please ask your doctor to send a sample of the urine to a lab for culture. This is a very simple thing for them to do. There are times that the culture will pick up an infection when the dipstick test does not. I hope that this information helps others who are suffering with Alzheimer's as my mother was. It is a difficult disease but I believe it can be cured with the above protocol. My mother is living proof!!!

KH, I can't thank you enough for your post!

In yesterday's post, I had reported that she had no side effects. She asked me to tell you that she tended to feel dizzy with physical exercise - for example, at the end of a walk. This is something that she has only reported since being on the niacinamide. I am just thrilled that she can remember having felt dizzy.

She went from asking the same question every 60 seconds (for example, she would ask where my father was, we'd answer that he was in the hospital, then seconds later she'd ask again) and being unable to take a shower because she couldn't remember how to do it, to being 100% her old normal self pre-dementia.

She can now shower and dress herself and apply her own make-up. She is back to cooking my parents' meals. She keeps the house clean. She remembers answers to questions. She is able to participate in conversations. She remembers events of the past few years that she had completely lost. She knows what year it is. She knows her age and my father's age.

Also, she had gotten very erratic emotionally. Now she's got her old personality back.

She got it all back.

She had no trouble with side effects.

We've been tapering down her dosage to see how she handles it. Right now she's on 1000 mg time release 2x a day, and so far so good.

I forgot to mention that it took just under four months for us to see what seemed to be a full cure, but we started to notice improvement even after a few days.

For example, my mother was able to remember that my father was in the hospital after about three days on niacinamide. She was able to remember how to shower after about a week and a half, but she still forgot where the soap was. She was able to remember where the soap was a few days later.

She was able to remember to feed the dogs (and what to feed them) after about three weeks. It took almost a month for her to remember what year it was and her age.