alt Hacker NewsThe problem with this stuff is (as the article mentions) is that it’s going to take a while to figure out whether any benefit is just temporary.
I would guess that there are a lot of variables to eliminate too - eg is it possible that just having a surgery and recovering from anaesthesia can yield some of these benefits in some circumstances? Given that we don’t really understand how most inhaled anaesthetics fully work
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If anesthetics cured Alzheimer's temporarily then any surgery would get the same effect and we would already know about it.
Does it matter if it's just temporary? If it works, it is the smoking gun of what alzheimers is and why it happens. If it is not a permanent fix, the next question is what is happening in the body that is causing these blockages. It also means that microplastics may be a leading cause.
If you have the money for the surgery, an extra year of cognition is huge. Short-term quality of life improvements are totally worth it if you can afford it.
(Disclaimer: the non-paywalled part of the article did not mention side-effects or complications of the treatment so I don’t know what they are.)
All benefits are temporary, my online friend.
Even if it is temporary, so what? Can't you just repeat it? And wouldn't clearing these drainage channels be harmless (modulo risks of any surgery) even if the theory didn't pan out? If I had early-stage Alzheimer's I'd go to the ends of the Earth and do everything I could to slow it down.
Yes, indeed.
I've witnessed dementia patients take a fall, and then be dramatically more confused the next couple days. I've also seen them get some kind of social exposure, sunshine, exercise, etc. and present better for several days afterwards. Measuring "how well is the mind working" isn't like reading a digital meter.