My husband has been taking 10mg of Aricept for 2 years now and I have not noticed any significant difference in his memory. Actually, my observation is his memory is becoming worse. I'm struggling with whether I should discontinue the medication since I don't see improvement and because it is quite costly. I also know Aricept is designed to slow down the dementia so if I discontinue it I'm wondering if he will become worse much faster.
Hi Margypops,
Axona is a brand-new prescription therapy launched in March 2009 for the treatment of mild-moderate Alzheimer's disease. As Alzheimer's is marked by a decrease in glucose in the brain (the primary source of food for the brain), Axona acts by providing/metabolizing glucose in the body to act as an alternate source of food for the brain.
Those are standard anti-depressents. However, I personally know about Aricept because I tried it for tardive dyskinesia and had a pretty poor response. My grandfather was prescribed Aricept for age related memory loss after a cardiovascular impairment. He couldn't tolerate it either. That doesn't mean at all its the wrong medication generally. Its just it has a fair amount of side effects for some people.
I have taken care of my husband's grandmother for over two years who had Alzheimer's and my mother has it. From what I have researched, it is the body shutting down that takes the patient. They start to not want to eat so nutrition plays a big part in it in the latter stages. If they get something like pneumonia, it's harder and harder for them to recover. Grandma was diagnosed with it in her early 80's and she died from pneumonia at the age of 92. I hope this helps.
They say now that Aricept binds receptors that would otherwise heal, so it's not good for MS - it's specifically for Alzheimer's. My new neuro was horrified when she learned I had been on it for five months.
I don't know anything about that - all I know is that before Aricept, I was in a gray mist, and after five months of Aricept, everything seemed to make more sense.
Mother had been experiencing dreams, nightmares really centering on the things she fears the most - abandoment, loss of control of her money, being pushed down the stairs, etc. These dreams were very real to her and she would then argue with her husband about why he said he wanted to do these things to her. He, of course, knew nothing of these "conversations and situations" she thought were so real.
When I was having some serious cog fog, I asked my neurologist for a sample of Aricept. Had to argue with him, actually. It worked! I got back some of my cognitive function - not all, but enough that I felt confident about my decisions.
I took it for four months, total. I still have one month left over on the scrip, so if I really need it, I'll have it.
I was diagnosed over 2 years ago but never got around to going to the Chiari Institute in NY as suggested by my geneticist, mostly because I also have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and know so, so many people who have had the decompression surgery and nearly all failed. So they say, it's due to also having EDS.
Hi,
Some cases of early-onset AD, called familial AD (FAD), are inherited. FAD is caused by a number of different gene mutations on chromosomes 21, 14, and 1, and each of these mutations causes abnormal proteins to be formed. Even if only one of these mutated genes is inherited from a parent, the person will almost always develop early-onset AD. This inheritance pattern is referred to as “autosomal dominant” inheritance.
What is the actual physical failure that causes death from Alzheimer's, and how is the failure caused by the disease? I'm just confused as it was my understanding that Alzheimer's was a disease that only affected cognitive function. I don't know what is meant by Alzheimer's being a "cause" of death.
My wife has not been been told that she has this disease, but shows all the systoms. It starts out with a pain her HEAD then she has slurred speach, drooling some times bad some times not but with 4 days the pains get so bad that she is not able to do enything thats when she shows most of the signs of alzheimer's. we have all the test done for this but none of the test shows that she has ALZHEIMER'S.
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