Harvard Neurologist Says To Treat Dementia Like Heart Disease

Rudolph E. Tanzi, who has a doctorate in neurology and is a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and the director of its Genetics and Aging Research Unit, said that to stop dementia and Alzheimer’s, doctors must treat it the way they currently treat heart disease.

“Just like we keep track of cholesterol and alter lifestyle and take safe drugs to lower cholesterol levels in order to avoid heart disease, we will need to do the same for Alzheimer’s disease,”

As a geneticist who co-discovered three of the first Alzheimer’s disease genes, Mr Tanzi says that the problem is now that doctors don’t diagnose Alzheimer’s disease until the brain has already deteriorated to the point of dysfunction. Patients “need safe and affordable drugs to intervene with amyloid deposition as early as possible,”

Mr. Tanzi said Alzheimer’s is only “beatable” when predicted early, based on family history and genetics; detected early, based on blood biomarkers and imaging; and intervened upon early, using safe and affordable drugs.

“The approved amyloid drugs are not approved for prevention, but only for treatment in the mildest cases of Alzheimer’s disease. That is good to do, but still too late.”