Monday, July 06, 2009

Alzheimer's cured in mice

"Alzheimer's disease is reversed in mice using caffeine".

One of the quotes from the article is this: That's important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people. Note that they don't say that it doesn't have side effects. I expect sleep disorder, arthritis, osteoperosis, and addiction. Personally, i'd accept a little pain to avoid Alzheimer's. And, for a change, i'm glad that caffeine is addictive. If i had to take medicine for Alzheimer's, i'd be afraid that i'd forget to take it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now wouldn't that be interesting!! I wonder if that's why some Alzheimer's patients have days of surprising lucidity - perhaps they had extra strong coffee that day.. It sure would be nice if something so basic would do something so grand. And would give me an excuse to keep drinking the exorbinant amounts of coffee that i am known to consume!
- Alicia

Stephen said...

The addictive bit suggests other uses. Let's say you're giving insulin to diabetics. If they don't take their medicine, they often become depressed, and this leads to further non-compliance. But let's say it was laced with heroin. Then they'd get withdrawal symptoms that would at least get them back on track. Or maybe speed, which could have the side effect of weight loss, which is an issue for many diabetics.

It was suggested that this scheme would never make it past the FDA. So the workaround would be to market it as an "herbal supplement."

It should go without saying, but i'll say it anyway. The tongue is firmly placed in the cheek.