Alzheimers Drug found ineffective..but...

Reuters report that a commonly prescribed Alzheimer's drug had no effect in treating patients with a mild form of the disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Sold under the brand Namenda by Forest Laboratories Inc and Germany's Merz Pharma, the drug had U.S. sales of about $1.2 Billion last year.

For the study, researchers culled through published studies, presentations at medical meetings and other sources to find studies that looked at the effectiveness of the drug memantine, Namenda's generic form, in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

They found that Memantine worked no better than a dummy pill at treating the disease.

Memantine is one of the few approved drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease, which affects 26 million people globally. And there are currently no drugs that can keep the disease from progressing.

Memantine is intended to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer's, but it is frequently used in mild Alzheimer's patients "off-label" -- for uses other than those approved by the FDA -- either alone or in combination with a drug known as a cholinesterase inhibitor.

Which brings me to this video... our contribution to the debate.... 

Here is Dr Newport's Video