Early detection is key, he said, because while the medications don’t cure Alzheimer’s, they slow progression.
The combination of a recently approved blood test for detection of Alzheimer’s disease combined with two medications that slow progression of the disease is drastically improving outcomes for patients and their families, according to a neurologist and surgeon at Yale New Haven Health.
Dr. Ausim Azizi is among those seeing the overall early results, as Yale New Haven Hospital is in the forefront of research and clinical care, he said, calling it “tops in the country,” and home to a federally-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
“We have started 350 people on these drugs,” he said. “Everybody I see feels better,” and feels, along with their families that they have “more control” of their lives.
With easy early detection and treatment patients may never reach the end stage of the disease, he said. The medication slows the disease progression and maintains what patients have, longer, he said.
In terms of quality of life, someone 75 years old, retired with significant memory problems, can still have friends and, “a good life,” with early detection and treatment, Azizi said.
The debilitating, progressive condition robs sufferers of their memory and cognitive abilities.
Azizi said there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but the disease can be “modified” with medications from two different companies.
