The Business of Aging

Doubts About Alzhemed

Last year, there was a lot of positive press about Alzhemed, a possible new treatment for Alzheimer's. At the time, a Phase 2 study showed "that overall, approximately 70% of the mild AD patients had stabilized or improved cognitive function tests even after 20 months of enrollment in the Alzhemed open-label Phase II extension study."

Well this week, some Wall Street analysts suspect Neurochem's (the company that is developing Alzhemed) recently issued $80 million in convertible notes and warrants is an indication the company's unreleased phase 3 trial of its Alzheimer's treatment Alzhemed yielded disappointing results. 

Predict the Progression to Alzheimer's?

For what it's worth, according to a recent article from Reuters Health, the journal Neurology reports that a simple cognitive test can help predict the likelihood that a person with mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease (AD).

The authors report that each increasing number of anxiety symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression) nearly doubled the risk of progressing to AD.

The risk of progression to AD was also increased significantly in those reporting problems with decision making and in those with persistent worrying. 

 

Stay-at-home elderly spur new market for remodelers

Interesting article today in Washington Times titled "Stay-at-home elderly spur new market for remodelers".

The opening sentence "A rising number of aging Americans is encouraging a home-makeover industry designed to help them "age in place." says a lot about three big changes taking place in America:

1. First (which is no surprise to anyone), is the aging of America. Baby boomers  account for about 78 million Americans and will start retiring with Social Security next year. And by2030, 70 million Americans will be over the age of 65.  This is one out of every five Americans!

2. Second, the growing popularity of older American's choosing to stay at home.  I saw a statistic recently that said eighty-three percent of elderly Americans would stay in their homes until  the end if they could.  I don't know what percentage of older American's choose to stay at home versus enter assisted living but my guess is the percentage will be increasing dramatically. For a couple reasons. One,  there probably will not be enough assisted living rooms to meet demand and two, I think perceptions about staying at home are changing. It used to be that if you were getting old and needed assistance with day-to-day basic living, a nursing home or assisted living was presented as the only feasible option.  But this is changing (due to media coverage, more in-home caregiving options, etc.) and represents a huge shift in elder care housing market.

3. Third, the HUGE market for "elder care" products and services that we are just starting to enter. And we really have not seen anything yet. In the article I referenced above, there is a section about Vince Butler, president of Butler Brothers Corp., a Clifton home-remodeling company. It reads:

"In the five years since he became a "certified aging-in-place specialist," customizing homes for elderly clients has grown to about 20 percent of his company's business. It typically involves installation of wheelchair ramps, task lighting that illuminates specific work areas, and levers on faucets and door handles."

We're entering very interesting times - both economically and socially as our population ages.   

Great eNewsletter for Elder Care News

I found this great newsletter titled Elder Care News.  I subscribe to a lot of newsletters relating to elder care and this is one of the best for general news on a wide variety of elder care topics.

Reversing Alzheimer's Memory Loss?

An article this week from CNN.com titled Reversing Alzheimer's memory loss may be possible  discusses how new research shows how "mental stimulation and drug treatment may help people with brain ailments such as Alzheimer's disease regain seemingly lost memories".

The lead researcher, Neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said "We show, I believe, the first evidence that even if the brain suffered some very severe neurodegeneration and the individual exhibits very severe learning impairment and memory loss, there is still the possibility to improve learning ability and recover to a certain extent lost long-term memories".

Many people suffering from AD are able to retrieve long-term memories - but not short term. These researchers believe that short-term memories are not being "erased" by AD and probably remain in storage but cannot be accessed or retrieved because of the brain damage.

Regardless of whether this research is right or wrong, one thing is clear - there are so many wonderful advances taking place in the field of AD. And that is a great thing. Keep up the great work, Li-Huei.