Iran Press/ America: The primary goal of a therapy for Alzheimer’s disease should be to improve the patient’s quality of life. The study wants to optimize their well-being and restore communication with family and friends to avoid social isolation, loneliness, and under-stimulation. Although the study was a small pilot and should be interpreted with caution, the results suggest that low-dose radiation therapy may successfully achieve this,” says Dr. Morris Freedman, a scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, head of the division of neurology at Baycrest and senior author of the study.
The study was a clinical follow-up to a 2015 case report about a patient in hospice with Alzheimer’s disease. After being treated several times with radiation to her brain, she showed such significant improvements in cognition, speech, movement, and appetite that she was discharged from the hospice to a long-term care home for older adults.
High doses of radiation are known to have harmful effects on our health. However, low doses, such as those used for diagnostic CT scans, can help the body protect and repair itself.
"Numerous neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, are thought to be caused in part by oxidative stress that damages all cells, including those in the brain. There are natural protection systems to combat the damage, but they become less effective as we get older. Each dose of radiation stimulates our natural protection systems to work harder – to produce more antioxidants that prevent oxidative damage, to repair more DNA damage, and to destroy more mutated cells,” says Dr. Jerry Cuttler, a retired Atomic Energy of Canada scientist. He has been researching the effects of radiation on health for more than 25 years and is the lead author of the study.
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