Each of us has developed a system to filter excessive information. To compensate, we acquire our own words, which pierce these systems, or, in the old parlance, make our ears perk up, be they the names of favorite teams, musicians, pastimes, or conspiracy theories. There is a decision regarding the United Kingdom's exit from the European Economic Area.
In the past few years, I have joined millions of others in acquiring the more unfortunate causes of dementia and Alzheimer's, but these are not always the signs of good news. Last week's headlines linking them with others, such as "breakthrough" and "treatment", set many of us off into a frenzy of information gathering.
There is a more complex picture emerging behind the headlines. The announcement that lecanemab can slow the cognitive decline of Alzheimer's patients is a long way from being a cure, but it is a qualitative shift in the decades-long search for a treatment.
The first drug shown to alter the course of Alzheimer's by clearing the brain deposits of amyloid-beta was granted a licence in the US last year. The FDA approval of aducanumab was controversial because it was not clear if it could alleviate symptoms.
Lecanemab seems to achieve a small amount of clinical benefit. There are at least as many other drugs and combinations of drugs being tested here as there are elsewhere. In quiet moments, neuroscientists accept that researchers in their field have been promising breakthrough since the 1960's. They have achieved meaningful results in each of the past two years. The ball is hitting the ground.
It will be too late for my wife. Her mother died of Alzheimer's at the age of 58. She always knew the same fate would befall her even though she didn't know her mother's condition was genetic. Her memory began to slip in the late-40s. Her decline has been rapid since the beginning of the year. She has been in a nursing home for more than a year and is unable to speak.
She clings on to what is left of her beloved walking despite the recent problems with swallowing. The smile and laugh are random, but much the result of stimuli unknown in her brain.
It's not necessary to pull on heartstrings anymore. Terminal diseases are ugly. The way dementia comes for the very soul of you is brutal and enigmatic. Are we close to catching up with it? This is where we can make a change. Businesses and governments have always responded quickly to those.
The extent of dementia's drain on society is showing itself at every turn. The cost of dementia in the UK was more than cancer and heart disease combined. The figure is expected to double by the year 2040. Less than a third of cancer's allocation is funded by the government every year. The total of dementia is less than 20% of cancer's. Its cost to the economy is much higher.
In contrast to the bolder, more physical nature of other conditions, dementia is elusive and hard to define. Now that science is unraveling its mysteries and the extent of the toll it exacts, the case for prioritising research into dementia, not to mention provision for the costs of care, which are crippled in themselves, is a good one.
Funding and technological progress are related. It has been seen with Covid and cancer. There is a chance that the word "lecanemab" will awaken the ears of those allocating budgets. Lecanemab can act as a lightning rod for further funding and research if it acts as a hope for a cure. We are going to be dealing with dementia soon. The time is right to chase it.
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