
Scientists hope they've found a drug to stop neurodegenerative brain diseases - misotaur
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-39641123
======
Fuzzwah
My current day job involves doing the tech behind a series of dementia related
online courses.

Awesomely, we just kicked off the latest running of our Preventing Dementia
MOOC:

[https://mooc.utas.edu.au/courses/preventing-
dementia-2017-03](https://mooc.utas.edu.au/courses/preventing-
dementia-2017-03)

I emailed this link to our academic team as I'm sure they'll get bombarded
with people asking why they should make changes to their life style if there
is a magical cure just around the corner....

~~~
summerdown2
Is there a short summary anywhere of recommendations for life style changes
that do benefit the fight against dementia? I don't have it currently, but I
must admit the older I get the more the prospect concerns me.

~~~
circlefavshape
The MIND diet

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25681666](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25681666)
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26086182](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26086182)

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eru
[https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine](https://www.gwern.net/Nicotine) suggests we
already have a drug that works fairly well for some diseases.

~~~
eveningcoffee
This is a nice reading.

The only problem I see with anything inhaled (that is to some limited extent
promoted here) is that it without compromise contaminates the surrounding air
and forces the the bystanders to involuntarily to consume the byproduct.

~~~
drspacemonkey
There's alternate delivery mechanisms for nicotine. I've been using a rather
foul-tasting "mint" oral spray [0]. It tastes like mint-flavoured death, but
it's good for a quick 1mg dose.

[0] [https://www.amazon.ca/Nicorette-69547-Quickmist-
Duo/dp/B004V...](https://www.amazon.ca/Nicorette-69547-Quickmist-
Duo/dp/B004VDQH5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493073766&sr=8-1&keywords=nicorette+spray)

~~~
Sunset
Why not patches?

~~~
eru
An ex-smoker might mentally need the quick fix? For a never-smoker, patches
are great.

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ak39
New studies indicate that sleep is an important factor in cleaning up protein
junk built up in the brain during wakeful hours. I wonder if the "real" impact
of trazedone is the improvement in sleep quality and therefore by extension an
effective maintainer of neurological physiology.

------
elchief
DBM being
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibenzoylmethane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibenzoylmethane)

I'm going to talk to my family whether we should gice this (and trazedone) to
my dad

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blazespin
Seems to me it would be just straightforward to get a list of people taking
trazodone for long periods and measure their rates of neurodegeneration versus
the general population versus those taking ssris.

~~~
gwern
Depression is repeatedly linked to changes in BDNF and neurogenesis, so you
would probably just see greater neurodegeneration compared to healthy controls
anyway. Post-marketing surveillance is hard to draw any causal conclusions
from...

~~~
woofyman
Trazodone is also used for sleep.

~~~
pswenson
I think much more widely for sleep than depression.... it was originally an
anti-depressent but had a nasty side-effect of making one very sleepy.

~~~
randycupertino
Trazodone helps me for sleep, it's incredible. I'm out like a light and it's
not addictive. If you have nighttime anxiety and stress-related sleep issues,
it can be a godsend.

~~~
msie
I have heard that it is addictive so I'm curious as to what your experience is
when not taking it. No withdrawal symptoms at all?

~~~
randycupertino
Nope, zero addiction. I take it about 5x a week, generally have weekends off.

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joelthelion
This is great, but if I read the study correctly, it's only been tested in
mice for now. So I wouldn't get my hopes too high for now (I'd estimate the
chances of success at 5% or less at this point).

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gumby
prion diseases too??? That's hard to believe.

