In an apparent attempt to resurrect the “gold standard” of Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and increase the number of cases of death caused, in part or whole, by Alzheimer’s Disease autopsy findings of plaques and tangles in the brain of the deceased, the Alzheimer’s research community, led by you-know-who, now claims it is okay to diagnose someone as having had Alzheimer’s Disease while they were alive, even though they never exhibited any of its symptoms.  Just several years ago, physicians never wrote the words ‘Alzheimer’s Disease’ on a death certificate.  Now, pathologists are being encouraged to write them postmortem.

This sleight of hand/words explains why recent studies of autopsies of folks who did not exhibit symptoms, yet their brains contained the “tell-tale” signs of plaques and tangles can be labeled as having Alzheimer’s - it was just preclinical - presymptomatic.  Thus, regardless of symptoms or no symptoms, you too can be classified as having lived and died with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Hooray!  The Gold Standard is back!  Therefore, any time plaques and tangles are found in a brain - pathologists are instructed to turn to each other and say, “Yep, he/she had Alzheimer’s disease.”  Cleans up an embarrassing mess, doesn’t it?  There is some evidence that most all brains, if we look close enough, have some tangles and plaques in them.  So, if we wanted to, for fundraising fear-factor reasons, claim everyone who has Alzheimer’s dies, we could do so under their new standards.  Where is the line drawn between naturally occurring plaques and tangles and Alzheimer’s “associated” plaques and tangles?  You decide.  Here we are right back where we started from!

Of course a close reading of these pronouncements reveals slippery words as “plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s.”  No ‘expert’ who wants to sleep through the night, can claim they are the cause of Alzheimer’s, nor can they claim they are caused by Alzheimer’s - if they want to sleep soundly every night.  They claim they are doing this in response to “reflect the current deeper understanding of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.”  But, I guess they didn’t have time to footnote it, or expand on this new “deeper understanding,” and of course this has little or nothing to do with other forms of dementia - they just threw those words in there so that the other half of folks living with forms of dementia, other than Alzheimer’s, wouldn’t feel left out.

Where is the line drawn between naturally occurring plaques and tangles and Alzheimer’s “associated” plaques and tangles?

Here is the mumbo-jumbo announcement.

“New criteria announced for assessing Alzheimer’s Disease neuropathology.”

The neuropathology guidelines used since 1997 to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease at autopsy have been updated to reflect a deeper understanding of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.  The effort, a project of the NIH and the Alzheimer’s Association, will help pathologists characterize Alzheimer’s-related brain changes at death in people diagnosed with dementia and those who have not yet shown clinical symptoms, taking into account that the disease process may begin a decade or two before outward signs like memory loss appear.  Further, the new guidelines recognize the importance of reporting pathology findings for all diseases that contribute to dementia - not just Alzheimer’s - related changes - and to correlate those findings with clinical symptoms of dementia, and then only to determine whether Alzheimer’s pathology was an underlying cause of the dementia.  The new criteria no longer requires a dementia diagnosis while the person was living, as studies suggest that Alzheimer’s develops years before it becomes clinically evident and research has revealed that the brains of even cognitively normal people may have Alzheimer’s-related brain changes.

Thus, you should look for a dramatic rise in the number of postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s; all of which ignore the fact the deceased exhibited no symptoms of ‘probable Alzheimer’s.’

My, oh my.  What a world we live in.  I realize this is not a big deal for most folks.  It’s just another piece of the historical record of how dementia became Alzheimer’s and how presymptomatic/clinical Alzheimer’s became a legitimized cause of death, and how all this contributes to the Alzheimer’s hysteria creating more donations and support to fund research to create “a world without Alzheimer’s.”

Richard

Click below for past presentations Richard has given around the world, the archive of his 2011 Newsletters (including German and Spanish-translated versions!), as well as his signature-style essays!

Enjoy!

The U.S. Treasury.

I note, not one penny will be spent on more and improved services/psychosocial treatments for persons living with Alzheimer’s or any of the other 50 or so forms of dementia.

And so the “war on Alzheimer’s” begins with a trip to the imaginary bank of the USA to withdraw 250 million imaginary dollars from the account of Mr. and Mrs. Printing Press.  Waiting outside the banks are a clutch/bevy/group of researchers who probably won’t let the money dry before it is all ear marked for this and that research project.  28 million dollars will be distributed to the 5+ million carepartners of persons living with the diagnosis (sorry no earmarked funds for the other 5 + million carepartners of persons living with other forms of dementia), and a few dollars to be wasted on infrastructure improvements (iPhones?).

I note, not one penny will be spent on more and improved services/psychosocial treatments for persons living with Alzheimer’s or any of the other 50 or so forms of dementia.  At least, it was not mentioned in the press release.  When can the 20+ million care partners expect their check for 70+ cents?  The press release did not say.  when can the 5 million folks living with Alzheimer’s expect benefits from the new war chest?  The cure and treatments will arrive January 1, 2025.

It is a good thing we have declared war on half the dementia public health crisis.  It is a bad thing many have been convinced this is the entire dementia public health crisis.

It is a good thing we have moved this incorrectly defined public health crisis up the imaginary priority list of the Administration.  It is a bad thing how they are starting this new war.

Richard