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24 million people worldwide live with Alzheimer's disease today. That's about three times the population of New York City. 1 in 10 people over 65 has it. And for people over 85, that stat goes up to an alarming 1 in three. And the worst part, Alzheimer's is a fatal disease.
But what if we could stop Alzheimer's and stop its symptoms from ruining people's lives? Well, the good news is we are getting closer. From AI that can spot early warning signs to vaccines that lower the risk of developing it and a lot more good news to be hopeful about. Hi guys, I'm Freddy and today we take a look at the incredible progress scientists are making to stop Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's disease was first discovered at the turn of the 20th century. The story goes that in the late 1890s a woman named Augusta Dieta started having trouble writing, speaking and remembering recent things. So in 1901, after just turning 50, she was admitted to an institution. Doctors were confused because her symptoms resembled that of dementia. However, back then it was believed that only people who were 65 and older could be diagnosed with dementia. That is why a certain doctor called Alois Alzheimer decided to interview and study data more closely. He would ask her common questions about her life and see if she could correctly answer them or not. And many times she simply couldn't.
5 years later, Dieta passed away and Dr. Alzheimer could take a closer look at her brain. This was when he noted that certain areas of her brain had shrunk quite dramatically. There were also two strange substances inside of her brain that were not supposed to be there. Dr. Alzheimer concluded that these strange deposits must have triggered an unknown form of dementia. And we will get to those strange deposits in a moment. His findings would eventually result in further research into what we know today as Alzheimer's disease.
So, what exactly is Alzheimer's disease then? And how is it different from dementia? It helps to think of dementia as an umbrella term for a variety of symptoms. These symptoms include having trouble thinking, solving problems, memory loss, and changes in a person's mood and behavior, just to name a few. But there are a lot of different diseases that can cause dementia. And one of those is Alzheimer's. In fact, it's the most common disease that causes dementia today.
Our brains are made up of billions of special cells called neurons. These neurons are responsible for processing and sending information to the rest of our body. They are the ones who get us to stand up, walk, breathe, and react to things around us. But with Alzheimer's disease, these communications are disrupted. And this disruption is primarily caused by those two strange substances Dr. Alzheimer first spotted more than 100 years ago. They are what we call plaques, which are misfolded proteins that can form in the little space between the neurons in our brains, and tangles, which are abnormal buildups of protein called tau that happen inside our neurons. Plaques and tangles are known indicators of Alzheimer's disease and they can cause neurons to stop communicating with each other and eventually die.
Alzheimer's can be present in a person's brain long before symptoms start to show. In fact, research suggests that plaques and tau tangles can already be present a full decade before symptoms start to set in. This is called the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's because symptoms of dementia haven't appeared yet. The next stage is called mild Alzheimer's, where symptoms appear and the disease is usually diagnosed. However, with some new advancements made in detecting Alzheimer's earlier, it can also be detected during the preclinical stage, but more on that later.
Alzheimer's usually starts off by affecting the memory areas in our brains. From there, the damage spreads to the part of the brain responsible for language, behavior, and reasoning. This is why people with mild Alzheimer's become extremely forgetful and also exhibit a variety of worrying behavioral changes. Then comes the moderate stage, when memory loss becomes worse. Learning becomes almost impossible, and everyday activities like getting dressed become more and more difficult. It's during this stage that Alzheimer's patients start to struggle recognizing their family and friends and start showing signs of paranoia and delusion. The severe stage of the disease is also the final stage. This is where a person cannot take care of themselves anymore, cannot communicate, and eventually becomes bedridden as their body starts shutting down. Eventually, their entire brain will be filled with damaged and dying cells, and their brain will have shrunk significantly. This is what makes Alzheimer's fatal. And there's no known cure for Alzheimer's disease. Yet, because this is good news and there's much to be hopeful about.
And the good news is that medicine is currently working on eliminating many of those cell-destroying plaques. And today, a lot is already being done to detect the disease earlier, to help manage it, and to reduce its symptoms. And one such early detection innovation comes with the help of AI. Researchers at UC San Francisco have managed to create an AI model that can predict Alzheimer's up to seven years before its first symptoms appear. These scientists used the data of a huge medical center to build a predictive model with a 72% accuracy rate. This AI looked at the data of more than 250,000 patients, including their demographics, medical problems, and drug exposure. And when researchers added additional data like a patient's level of education and frequency of doctor appointments, the AI's accuracy got even better. These AI models are still quite new, but it's a promising and exciting innovation to help detect Alzheimer's earlier than ever before. Because just like any disease, the sooner the detection, the better chance we have of delaying and hopefully preventing its worst stages.
But it's not just AI that's helping us, because the FDA recently approved a first-of-its-kind device that makes use of a simple blood test to diagnose Alzheimer's. More specifically, it can detect those characteristic plaques that we talked about earlier. Prior to the early 2000s, the only way to know whether a person had Alzheimer's or a different form of dementia was to examine their brain tissue after they had died. Since the early 2000s, we are able to identify these plaques with PET scans. But PET scans are costly, time-consuming, and expose people to radiation. Instead, this new blood test is fast, easy, and much safer. It can detect both the plaques and tau proteins responsible for Alzheimer's. And only if the ratio of each is high enough will a person then be sent for further scans and more accurate examination. And this early detection is vital since there are plenty of healthy habits that have proven to slow down Alzheimer's disease.
For instance, a 2024 study has shown that certain lifestyle changes can have a profound effect on the disease evolution. This study used an intense combination of exercise, diet, social interaction, and stress reduction. And the results show a slowdown in the progression of Alzheimer's. In fact, this program even improved the symptoms of some patients. The study involved 49 participants who were either in the early or in the mild stage. Half of them were put on the lifestyle change program for 20 weeks, while the others continued with their normal habits and routines. Each participant in the lifestyle change program had to commit to receiving three daily vegan meals, two snacks, and some healthy supplements every day. And if the vegan meals were not already punishment enough, they also had to do 30 minutes of aerobic exercises every day. For example, walking and strength training three times per week. For 1 hour a day, they were guided into doing either yoga, meditation, or stretches to release stress from the body. And on top of that, they had to join a support group three times a week to discuss their progress and emotional well-being. The scientists kept track of everyone's Alzheimer's markers by monitoring their blood samples and gut health. At the end of the study, those who made the lifestyle changes showed significantly better scores on their cognitive tests than before. Those who did not change their lifestyles saw their scores worsen. The results even showed that these healthy habits were able to slow down plaques the same way some current medication does. And that's just after 20 weeks.
And there are even more studies supporting the theory that living healthier can slow down the progress of Alzheimer's. One specific study followed 3,000 people for 10 years who have the high-risk Alzheimer's gene and monitored how much they walked every year. And the more these people walked, the lower their risk became of developing the disease. But how does walking alone have such a great effect? Well, when we walk or do any physical activity, our brains release a protein that helps the neurons to grow and survive. This protein is mostly found in the hippocampus, where memories form, and in the part of the brain where thinking, reasoning, and language happens. For people with Alzheimer's disease, keeping the neurons in these centers of the brain healthy is absolutely crucial. And the good news is, according to the Alzheimer's Association, there are many more things people can do to improve their cognitive ability and prevent Alzheimer's from wrecking their life. So basically, eat healthy, exercise, engage your mind, don't smoke, and sleep well. It's not really that surprising, to be honest.
Of course, the world of research and medicine is also trying to help in this regard. The more we study the brain, the better we can understand how exactly this disease works and what can be done to counter it. For instance, a research team from the City University of New York recently discovered pathways in the brain that were linked to the death of brain cells. Think of pathways as different connections running through the brain, kind of like a street network. These particular pathways, however, have been found to send stress signals that can cause our brain's immune cells to start attacking healthy brain cells instead of cleaning the dead ones. In doing so, they end up damaging the brain. People with Alzheimer's have twice as many of these stressed immune cells than those who don't have the disease. Using mouse brains modeled to resemble Alzheimer's, the scientists could successfully block these pathways. This led to no damage being done to cells and even saw a reduction of tau buildup in the brain. Scientists can now use this knowledge to see if they can block this pathway in humans too and thus slow down the decaying effect of Alzheimer's.
Another exciting new theory on how to combat dementia comes in the form of a study that shows how the shingles vaccine can possibly reduce a person's risk. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. When we get chickenpox, the virus stays in our bodies forever and can sometimes be reactivated as shingles. Symptoms include pain, burning, or itching on the skin, followed by a nasty, painful rash of blisters. But the good news is that we already have vaccines that protect us from getting shingles. And a shingles study in Wales looked at more than 280,000 people. It found that on average, those who received the vaccine had a 20% lower risk of being diagnosed with a dementia disease within 7 years. And the United States did actually a similar study in 2024 using a different shingles vaccine. And just like before, it showed that the vaccine reduced the risk of getting Alzheimer's. Of course, this is just a correlation at this point, but with more studies like these, experts could potentially find a causation.
Then there's a team of scientists in the US who recently identified a new drug that could possibly help prevent cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's. Using mouse brain models, again, they were able to test a drug to protect the blood-brain barrier, or BBB. You can think of the BBB kind of like a filter that protects the brain against harmful substances like toxic germs, for example. The deterioration of the BBB, that naturally breaks down with age, has also been linked to Alzheimer's and other dementia diseases. This drug specifically targets an enzyme that has been found to be more present in the BBB of Alzheimer's patients. And by protecting the BBB in these mouse brains using the new drug, neurons were kept healthy and intact and showed no damage or decline. There was also no decline in any cognitive functions or memory capacities.
With all of this in mind, what does the future hold for our battle against Alzheimer's disease? And is there really hope to cure it one day? Every year, doctors and scientists from around the world gather at the Alzheimer's International Conference to discuss the problems and the solutions for this terrible disease. This is where a new drug that's being tested was also discussed. So far, this medicine is showing great results in clearing the brain of those damaging plaques. Studies to test this drug on people with early Alzheimer's is set to begin later this year. And a clinical trial to test this drug on people at a high risk of developing Alzheimer's is also in the works. And with the new FDA-approved blood test, early detection will most likely become more common in the future.
So, can we really stop Alzheimer's one day? Many scientists and researchers remain optimistic. With every new study, we are getting closer and closer to truly understanding what causes the disease. And while a complete cure will probably still take some time, each breakthrough that we covered in this video is another step in the right direction. So now I want to hear from you. Do you know anyone in your life currently dealing with Alzheimer's? And how does it make you feel to hear about these exciting new developments? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below. And thank you for watching. Bye-bye. [Music]