US drafts plan to fight feared Alzheimer's disease

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration declared Alzheimer's "one of the most-feared health conditions" on Wednesday as it issued a draft of the nation's first strategy to fight the ominous rise in the mind-destroying disease.

More than 5 million Americans already have Alzheimer's or similar dementias, a toll expected to reach up to 16 million by 2050, along with skyrocketing medical and nursing home bills, because the population is aging so rapidly.

The government's top goal: Find some effective ways to treat Alzheimer's by 2025. That is an ambitious quest. Today's treatments only temporarily ease symptoms. Scientists know that Alzheimer's brews for years before symptoms appear, but work to find better medications or at least stall the disease's emergence has been frustratingly slow.

Whether scientists can meet that deadline or not, the first draft of the National Alzheimer's Plan also makes clear that overwhelmed families need help right away to care for affected loved ones.

Moreover, as many as half of today's Alzheimer's sufferers have not been formally diagnosed, and the draft in part blames stigma and misinformation.

Among the draft's planned steps:

—A major public awareness campaign to help people know the early warning signs of Alzheimer's and what to do.

—Educate doctors and other health workers about how to recognize Alzheimer's, what medications are available now that can help with the disease's symptoms, and what social services may help families to cope.

—Improve early detection, in part by determining the best cognitive screening to offer during Medicare's new annual wellness visit.

—Improve training of caregivers, so they know what resources are available and how to handle common behavior problems of dementia. Research shows that caregivers given such training are able to keep their loved ones at home for far longer.

—Study how to address the health needs of stressed and isolated caregivers.

Then there's the goal of better treatments. The National Institutes of Health spends about $450 million a year on dementia research. This month, the Obama administration announced it would add an extra $50 million to that tab this year, and seek $80 million more to spend on Alzheimer's research in 2013.

It plans to spend about $26 million on some of the plan's other provisions.

For comparison, the government spends nearly $3 billion on AIDS research; about 1.1 million Americans are living with the AIDS virus.

Wednesday's draft is open for public comment through March, and the government's Alzheimer's advisory council is sure to make changes before a final strategy is issued this year. But some of the work is not waiting: The NIH, for example, is bringing together top Alzheimer's scientists in May to discuss the most promising leads for better treatment.

Some members of that advisory council called the draft a good first step.

"They've covered the right topics. What is needed now is more detail," said Alzheimer's Association President Harry Johns. "There's real recognition at this point that Alzheimer's is devastating for not only the individual but for the families and caregivers."

"Today, with the strong commitment of federal leaders and louder outcry from the public, the urgency of the Alzheimer's disease crisis is being recognized and acted upon," said Eric J. Hall, president of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

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Online:

Alzheimer's plan: http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/napa/(hash)DraftNatlPlan

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Fasting Plus Chemo May Help in Cancer Fight: Study

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Fasting, especially when combined with chemotherapy, appears to slow the growth of cancerous tumors in mice, new research suggests.

Experts note that the results of animal studies often don't hold up when tried in humans.

However, researchers have started testing whether fasting can help human patients with breast, ovarian and urinary tract cancer.

In the mouse study, published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that fasting slowed the growth of growth of breast cancer, melanoma, glioma and human neuroblastoma in mice.

In some cases, fasting was as effective as chemotherapy, according to the study.

"The combination of fasting cycles plus chemotherapy was either more or much more effective than chemo alone," senior study author Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, said in a university news release.

Researchers said that normal cells deprived of nutrients during fasting enter a dormant state, whereas when studied in the lab, a type of cancer cell attempted to keep growing and dividing.

That, in turn, led to a "cascade of events" that damaged the cancer cells' DNA and led to cell death.

"A way to beat cancer cells may not be to try to find drugs that kill them specifically but to confuse them by generating extreme environments, such as fasting, that only normal cells can quickly respond to," Longo concluded.

The study authors noted that results from the initial phase of a clinical trial, which involved patients with breast, urinary tract and ovarian cancer conducted at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, have been submitted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cancer Oncologists. This trial tested the safety of short-term fasts two days before and one day after chemotherapy.

"We don't know whether in humans it's effective," Longo said. "It should be off limits to patients, but a patient should be able to go to their oncologist and say, 'What about fasting with chemotherapy or without' if chemotherapy was not recommended or considered?"

The researchers warned that fasting may not be safe for all cancer patients, particularly those who have already lost a significant amount of weight or have other conditions, such as diabetes. They added that fasting can cause headaches and a drop in blood pressure. The study also pointed out that cancer-free survival resulting from fasting may not extend to large tumors.

According to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that fasting is effective for preventing or treating cancer. Even a short-term fast can have negative health effects, while fasting for a longer time could cause serious health problems."

More information

The American Cancer Society provides more information on fasting and cancer.

View the original article here

Fasting Plus Chemo May Help in Cancer Fight: Study

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Fasting, especially when combined with chemotherapy, appears to slow the growth of cancerous tumors in mice, new research suggests.

Experts note that the results of animal studies often don't hold up when tried in humans.

However, researchers have started testing whether fasting can help human patients with breast, ovarian and urinary tract cancer.

In the mouse study, published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers found that fasting slowed the growth of growth of breast cancer, melanoma, glioma and human neuroblastoma in mice.

In some cases, fasting was as effective as chemotherapy, according to the study.

"The combination of fasting cycles plus chemotherapy was either more or much more effective than chemo alone," senior study author Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California, said in a university news release.

Researchers said that normal cells deprived of nutrients during fasting enter a dormant state, whereas when studied in the lab, a type of cancer cell attempted to keep growing and dividing.

That, in turn, led to a "cascade of events" that damaged the cancer cells' DNA and led to cell death.

"A way to beat cancer cells may not be to try to find drugs that kill them specifically but to confuse them by generating extreme environments, such as fasting, that only normal cells can quickly respond to," Longo concluded.

The study authors noted that results from the initial phase of a clinical trial, which involved patients with breast, urinary tract and ovarian cancer conducted at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, have been submitted for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Cancer Oncologists. This trial tested the safety of short-term fasts two days before and one day after chemotherapy.

"We don't know whether in humans it's effective," Longo said. "It should be off limits to patients, but a patient should be able to go to their oncologist and say, 'What about fasting with chemotherapy or without' if chemotherapy was not recommended or considered?"

The researchers warned that fasting may not be safe for all cancer patients, particularly those who have already lost a significant amount of weight or have other conditions, such as diabetes. They added that fasting can cause headaches and a drop in blood pressure. The study also pointed out that cancer-free survival resulting from fasting may not extend to large tumors.

According to the American Cancer Society, "available scientific evidence does not support claims that fasting is effective for preventing or treating cancer. Even a short-term fast can have negative health effects, while fasting for a longer time could cause serious health problems."

More information

The American Cancer Society provides more information on fasting and cancer.

View the original article here