A team of researchers believes that they may have found a new path for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. By targeting a signaling pathway within the brain, researchers believe that the progress of Alzheimer’s can be slowed.
Doctors have long known that tau tangles play a role in the spread of this disease. But by “shutting off” the NF-kB pathway in mice models, they found that the tau tangles were unable to spread, effectively halting the disease’s progress.
This progress indicates that there might be more effective methods of treating and slowing down the spread of Alzheimer’s disease than what are previously being used. Hopefully, this research will be used by others in the future as a starting point so that those who do have Alzheimer’s disease can live a higher quality of life for longer periods of time.
Even with steps forward like this in Alzheimer’s research, there is no cure for this disease. Even though doctors understand more about the disease than ever before, how it works and how it spreads, they still don’t know how to cure it. But, they are getting closer to an understanding of this every day. And although there’s no cure for the disease, the gains that are made through research like this have very serious benefits. They bring us a little bit closer to a cure, sure. But they also help us to make life better for those that are currently fighting this awful disease.
Finding care that addresses both physical and emotional needs is important when it comes to Alzheimer’s and memory care. Because there’s no cure for many types of dementia, a palliative approach is often the best way to make life better for seniors. Unfortunately, nursing homes can’t always provide this because of funding. End of life care, such as what hospice provides, tends to not be covered by insurance until doctors determine that there is only six weeks left to live. This doesn’t take into account that palliative care can be needed for longer than this. Dealing with Alzheimer’s disease is often more about comfort than it is about anything else.
This is yet another reason why the right care team is so important. When you have a service that knows what Alzheimer’s is like and the best ways to help someone suffering from it, some of the stress of having a loved one in this position can be relieved. Some of the worry about safety and health disappears and you can focus on enjoying your loved one’s company. In-home care can be used to help customize the help that your loved one gets so that they can stay in their own home for as long as they are able and continue to do the things that they want to do.
If you’d like to talk more about how the right care can help make this easier, please reach out. One of our caregivers would love to talk with you about memory care and how it can be more helpful when given in the home.
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