Scientists Claim Infrared Helmet Could Reverse Alzheimer's Symptoms 201
penguin_dance writes "Ready to put on your thinking cap? There's a report out of the UK regarding an 'experimental helmet which scientists say could reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease within weeks of being used'. The helmet is to be worn for ten minutes every day and stimulates the growth of brain cells using infra-red light. The article explains, 'Low level infra-red red is thought to stimulate the growth of cells of all types of tissue and encourage their repair. It is able to penetrate the skin and even get through the skull.' Human trials are due to start this summer." I wont make any nomad-based predictions, but I'll remain on the skeptic side of the fence for now.
Spaceballs The Helmet! (Score:5, Funny)
[Playing with his dolls]
Dark Helmet: [In Dark Helmet voice] And now Princess Vespa, I have you in my clutches, to have my wicked way with you, the way I want to.
[In Vespa voice]
Dark Helmet: No, no, go away, I hate you! And yet... I find you strangely attractive.
[In D.H. voice]
Dark Helmet: Of course you do! Druish princesses are often attracted to money and power, and I have both, and you *know* it!
[In V. voice]
Dark Helmet: No, no, leave me alone!
[In D.H. voice]
Dark Helmet: No, kiss me!
[V]
Dark Helmet: No! Stop!
[D.H]
Dark Helmet: Yes, yes!
[V]
Dark Helmet: Oh, oh, oh! Ohhhh, your helmet is so big!
My only question... (Score:2, Funny)
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Sunlight? (Score:5, Interesting)
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In cell culture tests it can sometimes help cell growth, but I'm sceptical that it will do what they claim.
The difference between this and walking around in sunlight would presumably be the intensity of the specific radiation. It would be many more milliEinsteins than woul
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Plus older people tend to avoid the sun, as they can't stand the heat / brightness, quite apart from the cancer risks...
Still, on a lighter note:
Doctor: I'm sorry, Mr Smith, but your wife's symptoms match either Alzheimer's or AIDS.
Smith: *gasp* What can I do, Doc?
Dr: Well, I suggest you take her into town, and leave here there. If she finds her way home, wear a condom!
my favorite thing about sunlight (Score:2)
but about OP's comment that he'll stay on the skeptic's side of the fence for now, doesn't that just mean you're not going to let someone put an infrared helmet on you until further tests have been done? or are you going to walk around actively disbelieving it?
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The difference is that Virulite (the company who makes the helmet) doesn't get paid when you just walk around in the sun.
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So go outside. On the other hand, during the winter the sunlight here isn't strong enough, so a helmet might come in handy. On the gripping hand, people with Alzheimer's tend not to get out much at any time of year, particularly in the winter.
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The explanation of laser vs sunlight isn't entirely one of the question above. Sunlight may in fact contain IR radiation at the color of the laser. It contains a fairly diminished amount relative to the pure output of the laser and it's penetration in brightness is diminished a lot. Sunlight IR penetrates about 1/2 inch into a person or less. That is significant and has many good clinical values which are being ignored for the most part. However; a laser by its brightness may penetrate much deeper into
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Apparently the white hair on polar bears acts like optic fibre. It collects light over a larger surface than the bare skin of the animal and channels it to the body to keep it warm.
Fascinating Captain. (Score:3, Informative)
Never heard of this before. Too bad it's not true [stlawu.edu] and you are propagating another "urban myth" (although Polar Bears aren't especially urban).
Thanks for playing.
And now back to our regularly scheduled program.
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Thus baldness might not be a big issue, evolutionarily speeking.
Cell phone use (Score:2)
Foil, then bake. (Score:2, Informative)
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One potential problem is that IR doesn't penetrate very FAR into the brain (though it definitely penetrates the skull). I have a colleague who measures cortical blood
So... the next logical question is... (Score:5, Interesting)
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That's called a cancer. Feel free. Can't guarantee that you'd like it, though...
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What if you have cancer? Will it get worse or better? Can you focus it on your heart if you have heart problems? Or on your butt if you want to look like Jay-Lo? Ad nauseum...
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Infrared or heatsink? (Score:1)
What's up with Alzheimer's and helmets? (Score:2)
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I've heard this before......... (Score:1)
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Cellular_regeneration_and_entertainment_chamber [memory-alpha.org]
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I have this image of brain cells getting depressed and just hanging around, slowly degenerating.
Not a scientist but ... (Score:2)
Does infrared light have the ability to pass through the skull ?... sounds like snake oil to me... I'll stick with my pyramid hat.
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Yes, infrared light can pass through the skull. In fact, there's a technique called fNIR (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) which uses a system of IR emitters and detectors to measure brain activity. Some links:
http://www.lab-times.org/methods/m_07_03.html [lab-times.org]
http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/fnir/Contents/brain_imaging/ [drexel.edu]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FNIR [wikipedia.org]
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If this encourages brain growth (Score:1)
This could be the new way of boosting performance for exams.....
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All cell types?? (Score:2)
Doesn't seem to be doing much for the ol' hair follicles
head warmer? (Score:2, Funny)
I know IR has more things than heat associated with it, but still... its a head warmer!
Skeptical and yet... (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly, This is an illustration of why our process of developing medications is ridiculous. This may not work (though I resent that "wontwork" tag) but frankly there are at least 3 very promising treatments for Alzheimer's Disease in early trials. But because of the length and the way trials work, if they are successful none of them will emerge from trials early enough to help my father. And frankly, he and my family would be willing to try anything to help him. And in the end the worse outcome is that he doesn't get better. But we will never know. 10 years from now Alzheimer's may be no worse than severe diabetes, MS, Crohn's Disease or what have you: controllable, not curable with a quality of life equivalent to most other people. But because we would rather not kill a dying person to find out if we'll kill them or save them, my father will never get benefit of this.
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I am sincerely sorry for your father, it's very sad that his tragedy is made even worse through deliberate malevolence. The regulators truly deserve the harshest punishment for their actions, unfortunately they'll pro
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Sorry, didn't mean to direct that toward you, this was actually meant to be a more general societal thing. Until people get over their sue-happy kick lately, all government entities are going to tread softly, I imagine, particularly those directly related to public hea
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I will grant that we are a sue happy society, but there's a reason for that. Being an American who's lived in Canada for a couple years I'm noticing there's a lot more government support and government agencies here. The government regulates the corporations so the average Canadian doesn't even need to think of suing. In the US on the ot
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Corporations have bottomless wallets while the people don't. Your best bet is a class action lawsuit that returns almost nothing per individual, while the corporations can sue you instead.
I cite the RIAA and the sony rootkit incident.
Anyway, I see your point, but it's a two way street. Those with money can, and some do, abuse the system. In doing so, they ruin its reputation.
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Corporations have bottomless wallets while the people don't.
I never understood this mentality. Do people really believe that when they're suing a corporation that the money just magically appears and isn't impacting anything down the line? The fact that most people end up sitting on that cash the rest of their lives makes it as it they've effectively pulled that cash straight out of the countries GNP, as the corporation in question WILL cut costs elsewhere to hedge the difference.
The impact is people losing jobs or lower wages, poorer quality materials in use, poor
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Coffee is supposed to be brewed HOT. It is supposed to be served HOT. You spill HOT SHIT on you, and you GET BURNT.
That woman was sold a cup of coffee that was somewhere between 180-190 F. That's hot, sure. Starbucks sells hotter coffee -- actually the crap sold by starbucks is FAR too hot to drink and tastes like it's been overroasted and brewed too hot and kept too hot for too long, but nobody goe
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No, actually the lawsuit was NOT frivolous. It was actually an exercise in corporate comeuppance.
The woman, who was elderly and rather frail, originally asked McDonalds to reimburse her for her medical bills incurred for treating second degree burns. While it may be necessary to BREW coffee at 205 degrees, it is not necessary (or prudent) to keep it on the warmer at that temperature, which McDonalds was doing.
The woman only brought the suit after McDonalds refused her request to compensate her medi
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If you go to a pizza place and buy a pizza, and are handed one that JUST came out of the oven, are told "This just came out, it's real hot", and immediately bite into a slice -- you're going to have some pretty nasty burns in your mouth.
And it's NOT the pizza place's fault. It's yours.
If you take that pizza, and trip and fall over your own feet and land on top of the pizza and burn your hands? It's YOUR fault, again.
Exa
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She was dumb, sure, but the consequences of her being dumb were far above what would reasonably be expected.
Hot coffee (Score:2)
It's also "supposed" to be served in a sturdy ceramic cup with an open top that allows rapid evaporative cooling (which is why the coffee needs to be that hot in the first place). Failing that, a sturdy cardboard cup would at least be reasonable.
What is obviously not reasonable is a cheap styrofoam cup that gets soft when it is exposed to that level of heat, although this may not be obvious to
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I'm in no way in favour of a nanny state - but corporations, organizations, and governments are obliged to learn from the past and learn from experience. If you serve 200 deg C coffee in flimsy cups to people driving cars, n% will suffer 3rd degree burns to significantly large parts of their bodies.
Either reduce the temperature of the coffee, or use sturdier cups. To purposefully ignore the n% who have already been hurt is to be directly responsible for the future n% who will be hurt.
The f
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I think the disagreement between those who feel the case is frivolous and those who feel it is not stems from whether you believe there should be different standards for companies and individuals.
For example, suppose that you and I are friends, and you ask me to make you a cup of coffee for the road. I brew some coffee at 200F and serve it to you in a cheap styrofoam cup at 190F. "Be careful, this coffee is hot," I say. "No shit, Sherlock," you reply. As you're sitting in the car, you hold the cup firmly between your knees and remove the top, so you can add sugar and cream. But then you accidentally spill some coffee on yourself. "God dammit, that was 20% my fault," you say through clenched teeth.
I certainly think that there should be different standards for friends. A friend is somebody with whom I have an ongoing relationship that includes a certain amount of mutual debt, for favors done in the past and for harms forgiven. So if a friend of mine does something so idiotic (I don't know if I have any friends that stupid, but never mind) as to hand me 190F coffee in a flimsy styrofoam cup, without even putting the cream and sugar in so I won't have to risk opening the cup in the car, I won't sue him
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So if you negligently hurt your friend, you don't think that you owe him anything, not even an apology, much less help with the medical bills for the injury caused by your carelessness?
Do you have any friends?
Moses supposes his toes are roses (Score:2)
When I was in japan I told people that where I come from, you can't get cold coffee, and that seemed weird and alien to them.
The point of the woman's lawsuit was that handing people flimsy cups of dangerously hot liquids at a drive-through was not a good idea.
The right temperature to serve coffee (Score:2)
That woman was sold a cup of coffee that was somewhere between 180-190 F. That's hot, sure
225 consumers tasted black coffees at six different temperatures, ranking them for preference. The lowest temperature was below the pain threshold, the next below the epithelial damage threshold, the next two above. The two highest temperatures approximated to coffees served commercially.
The rank order
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To those tempted to use McD's coffee a a snarky "example" of the legal system gone awry, consider that a 3d degree burn is where the skin is totally destroyed down to the flesh, and then think about you might do if the skin was totally burned off your cock.
People who buy into the whole "McD's coffee"="lawyers bad" argument are
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Why not? Most of the similar medicines are still on the market-- I believe even Vioxx is still available.
I still think that most of the corporate officers should be in prison. If the CEO was sent to prison when something like this happened-- even if it can't be proven that he was responsible, I guarantee that you'd see a whole lot fewer of these types of tragedies.
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No I wouldn't. I am a principled person.If you think this is a common behavior then it's no wonder we are ruled by an immoral bunch of criminals.
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Which is horse shit. Sorry. But there are plenty of areas outside the USA where "experimental" treatments are available right now. Places where restrictions on th
Because the alternative is even worse (Score:2)
Godwin freaks, piss off for a bit will you.
The nazi's had your approach, they believed that killing people if it might save others was a good idea, especially if the people were being killed were less worthy anyway. Who is going to be the subject of your medical experiments? There is an awfull lot of research that would go a lot faster if only we had human trials with less restrictions.
To this day a lot of the research from that era is still the ONLY research available because nobody else allows us to kil
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Google for "medical research foster childeren new york" and you will find a case where somebody without ethics decided that people should be volunteered for medical research.
WTF, I googled for it and it didn't return any results [google.com]. They don't want us to hear the truth, dude.
for the sake of one human being we cannot loose our humanity
That's right, that would be just immoral and unethical to try to save that person. Not helping him and letting him die slowly from his horrible disease is the only humane t
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But, if you are going to be snarky, at least try not being a complete moron and don't use quotes around your search criteria in Google while at the same time failing to make a complete sentence.
Medical journals tend to use complete sentences. So maybe try two phrases instead.
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I'm sorry, but WTF are you talking about? The person you're responded to said nothing about wanting to test drugs on his father against his will. As it is now, terminally ill patients can't even get access to drugs that haven't gone through the lengthy process of federal approval yet, even if they explicitly want to take the risk (since t
Buy the compound to research yourself (Score:2)
Actually, while a compound is still going through FDA trials, it is easier to get ahold of to the lay person then if it "passes" the trial. The chemical manufacturers are now churning out those compounds for research trials, and anyone can buy them for "non-human research only". As well as some license a "research supplier" to also handle sales of these compounds to in
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I sympathize with your father's condition, and I can certainly understand your frustration with the drug approval process. While the process has a number of problems, the idea behind it is pretty solid. It takes a long time to determine what the effects of treatments can be. Doctors pledge an oath to do no harm. Part of that is taking steps in ensuring that the treatment they give won't make things worse and the drug
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Frankly, This is an illustration of why our process of developing medications is ridiculous. This may not work (though I resent that "wontwork" tag) but frankly there are at least 3 very promising treatments for Alzheimer's Disease in early trials.
There are a lot more than 3. But think about the problems. Alzheimer's Disease develops slowly, so it takes years to tell if a treatment is working. And while this notion looks pretty benign (I'd lay money that it won't work, but it's worth trying), that is not the case in general. One of the most promising treatment ideas was an antibody against Alzheimer plaque protein. And when tried, it actually seemed to be working. Unfortunately, it also caused fatal encephalitis [medscape.com]
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a lot harder than it sounds (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:a lot harder than it sounds (Score:5, Insightful)
thanks... (Score:2)
Symptoms may be reversed in minutes--not weeks (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109091102.htm [sciencedaily.com]
From the article:
"An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer's disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.
"This new study highlights the importance of certain soluble proteins, called cytokines, in Alzheimer's disease. The study focuses on one of these cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), a critical component of the brain's immune system. Normally, TNF finely regulates the transmission of neural impulses in the brain. The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer's disease interfere with this regulation. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer's.
"The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer's patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study."
A bit optimistic (Score:3, Insightful)
Key points:
This is a case study of one patient.
Treatment was not double blinded. Patient's family and doctor knew about the treatment.
From the paper, the degree of improvement sounds a bit short of complete reversal of symptoms
Upon returning to the clinic one week following perispinal etanercept administration for his weekly dose the patient's wife and son confirmed that he had remained markedly clinically improved throughout the week, a fact which was remarked upon by the family [see Additional file 1]. He was noticed to be less reluctant to join in conversation. On re-examination by author ET prior to repeat dosing one week after the initial dose, the patient correctly identified the year, month, season, day of week and state. He appeared to answer with less frustration, and the examiner's impression was that there was reduced latency of response, and his affect seemed improved. On the FAS test for verbal fluency when asked to list all of the words that start with the letter F in 60 seconds he listed 8 words, and named 5 animals in 60 seconds.
The study author has a patent on this treatment strategy.
Severity of Alzheimer's dementia can vary dramatically from day to day, and many patients show periods of near-comp
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There was a not very scientific documentary on TV recently in which people undergoing sensory deprivation were tested both before and after with this word-listing puzzle. They chose the letter 'F' too. Is it a standard thing?
It seems a very bad choice, to be honest. The TV didn't show it, but I'm sure I know exactly what word number one will be from nearly everyone. I mean, really.
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Patient: Uh..flower, fantastic, forward, front,..um...force,..uh... fun,...uh... flimsy...uh...uh...uh...FUCK!
Doctor: Very good.
Well (Score:2)
Now I know (Score:1)
Research Alluded to in the Article (Score:1)
For the lazy: Middle aged / young rats are put in a 3D maze with some middle-aged mice receiving 6 minute daily doses of IR. Middle aged mice treated with IR show (nebulously-termed) improved memory but do not navigate the 3D maze more quickly as a result.
Doesn't sound like such the panacea the Dailymail article makes it out to be.
Obviously a fake... (Score:1)
baldness (Score:2)
But seriously, the weather (Score:3, Funny)
to the doctor to make sure there's nothing wrong.
After an exam, the doctor says, "You're physically okay, but you guys
might want to start writing notes to help you remember things."
That night they're watching TV when the old man gets up from his chair.
His wife says, "Where are you going?"
He says, "I'm going to the kitchen to get a glass of water."
She says, "Will you get me some Vanilla ice cream?"
He says, "All right."
She says, "Don't you think you should write it down?"
He says, "I don't have to write it down. Vanilla ice cream."
She says, "And could I have strawberries and whipped cream?"
He says, "All right."
She says, "Don't you think you should write it down?"
He says, "I don't have to write it down.Vanilla ice cream with
strawberries and whipped cream."
Twenty minutes later he walks in and hands her a plate of bacon and eggs.
She says, "You forgot my fucking toast."
Weasel words ftw... (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess I'm just a cynical bastard now, but having weasel words in a story like this whispers, "snake oil" or, "wishful thinking" to me. Maybe it's because all the people selling quack stuff are careful about how they say things for legal reasons, and now I put too much effort into scrutinizing how medical claims are worded. Call me when it's actually curing Alzheimers in a no-shit, double-blind, randomized study with more than a handful of participants.
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Uh, they're scientists engaging in very preliminary research, and you're criticizing them because they're being honest about how experimental it is? They aren't making any medical claims whatsoever. They're just basically saying "we found this interesting result in rats, let's see if it also applies to humans."
Call me when it's actually curing Alzheimers in a no-shit, doubl
if this works on improving cognition in (Score:2)
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The real snake oil tends to deal in absolutes, or at least give you the best impression possible that it's an absolute. No snake oil salesman would ever tell you that something "could reverse the symptoms...." He'd be sure to at least work the word cure in there. If he were worried about being sued he'd tell you that he's legally not allowed to claim me
But... (Score:4, Funny)
Reminder (Score:3, Funny)
Your last words before doing so were "mom, I'm going back to my room now"
It's helpful? (Score:2)
That's funny. When I leave the infrared transmitter for my wireless headphones on when I go to bed, I don't seem to sleep as well.
Tin foil hats? (Score:2)
Over star to tape and grass. I like pie!
Suggestion for brand name (Score:2)
They could call it the Alzheimer's Subcranial Stimulation hat. Otherwise known as the... nah, I'm not going there.
--Rob
What about brains that have been fried on drugs? (Score:2)
Wii (Score:2)
Interesting picture ... (Score:2)
Cell phone ? (Score:2)
It's the Daily Mail (Score:2)
Guess what I heard last year! (Score:2)
Now where's my Slashdot website...
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The implication "radiation is bad and causes cancer" is glib and meaningless.