The treatment of Alzheimer's disease took a major step forward today as scientists unveiled a drug that appears to slow the progression of the disease.
Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia affect more than 40 million people around the world.
This number will increase to an estimated 75.6 million in 2030 as the population continues to age.
Existing drugs simply address the symptoms - and failure to deal with the underlying causes means they quickly wear off, and the disease soon takes its devastating course.
In contrast, the experimental drug solanezumab tackles beta amyloid, the toxic protein that clogs the brain in Alzheimer's, destroying vital connections between cells.
Hopes about solanezumab were dashed three years ago, when a large-scale trial appeared to show it was ineffective.
However, close analysis suggested there were some benefits if taken at a very early stage of the disease.
Patients with mild symptoms continued taking the drug for another two years, and US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, today unveiled highly anticipated trial results.

Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease who took solanezumab early in the course of their disease preserved more of their cognitive and functional ability, the company said.
The research, presented today at the Alzheimer's Association International conference, revealed the the promising results of studies into the use of solanezumab.
Results suggest that if given to patients early enough, the antibody therapy will be able to slow cognitive decline - by around 30 per cent.
Specifically, long-term analysis found that people with mild Alzheimer's disease, who have taken the drug for 3.5 years, show some benefits in cognition compared to those who have only taken it for two years.
The discovery was announced at the Alzheimer's Association International conference in Washington DC, which saw studies of three alternative antibody therapies presented.
Eric Siemers, medical director for Lilly's Alzheimer's team, said if solanezumab can slow disease progression by roughly a third, as it did in the first two Phase III trials, that would be very meaningful to patients.
'In 18 months of treatment with solanezumab, patients could delay six months worth of progression' of Alzheimer's, he said.
'That gives you more opportunity to do things that are important to you, before you progress into later stages of the disease.'
He added that beta amyloid is believed to build up in the brain for 10 or 15 years and steadily kill neurons before Alzheimer's symptoms appear.
Patients who took solanezumab from the start of earlier studies may have preserved many brain cells, he speculated, while those that began taking it later were not protected for the initial period. 'They can't get those brain cells back; they are gone forever.'
Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia 44 million people worldwide. This number will increase to an estimated 75.6 million in 2030 as the population continues to age
Commenting on the newly presented research, Alzheimer's Society's head of research, Dr Doug Brown, said: 'Today's findings strongly suggest that targeting people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease with these antibody treatments is the best way to slow or stop Alzheimer's disease.
'These drugs are able to reduce the sticky plaques of amyloid that build up in the brain, and now we have seen the first hints that doing this early enough may slow disease progression.
'After a decade of no new therapies for dementia, today's news is an exciting step forward.
'We will have to wait for the ongoing trials to finish to know the full risks and benefits of these drugs.
'If they are positive, these drugs will be the first identified to directly interfere with the disease process and slow the progression of Alzheimer's.'
'In 18 months of treatment with solanezumab (not pictured), patients could delay six months worth of progression of Alzheimer's,' experts said today
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'In 18 months of treatment with solanezumab (not pictured), patients could delay six months worth of progression of Alzheimer's,' experts said today
Referring to aducanumab, he warned that although the results leaned towards a treatment that could slow the disease, the drug was not without side effects.
In relation to solanezumab, Dr Brown added: 'It's good news that some people have been receiving the antibody for over three years and it appears to be having beneficial effects.
'The current trial has finished recruiting participants, so in just 18 months we may get an exciting first look at the final results.'
Eric Karran, of the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: 'Current treatments only help with symptoms.
'They enable nerve cells to communicate with each other more effectively, but don't stop the underlying disease from getting worse.
'Eventually, the effect ... wears off as the damage to the brain overwhelms the modest benefit afforded by the drugs.
'These new results provide encouraging evidence that solanezumab could indeed be acting on the disease processes that drive Alzheimer's.
'Although this effect represents a small improvement for people experiencing mild symptoms, it will be important for longer trials to explore whether this treatment could produce greater benefits in the long term.'
Meanwhile Professor John Hardy, Professor of Neuroscience, University College London, said: 'These reports are good news in the same way that a forecast of sunny weather at the weekend is good news.
'It raises hopes for good weather, but it does not mean good weather is a certainty.'
Clinical findings about another drug, called aducanumab, trialled in people with very early stage Alzheimer's disease, were also presented.
Interim results from a safety study found the drug, made by Biogen, reduces the amount of the amyloid plaques in the brain, with an increasing effect as the dose increases.
However more than a quarter of people on the higher dose experienced headaches and a third to a half experienced abnormalities on a brain scan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3170737/Major-Alzheimer-s-breakthrough-scientists-unveil-new-drug-slows-progression-disease.html

It may not be common in Nigeria
we call it senility
i have personally seen a woman that way when i went to visit her daughter who was my teacher way back
but
science sef cannot explain Alzheimer's
cos 4 people like us wey our grandparents sharp till d end 88+
you go know say water dey pass garri - sometimes
as for me and my house
THERE IS A BALM IN GILEAD