Alternative Treatments For Alzheimer’s Disease

What is Axona? Can it help?  

 

Those with a senior loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s disease would do most anything to find a remedy to help their loved one battle the disease’s effects, including investigating alternative treatments. One of the most known of such treatments is Caprylic acid, marketed as a “medical food” called Axona®. But do such alternatives work and how safe are they?

 

What is Axona?

Axona is a prescription dietary supplement that claims to target the nutritional needs of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is thought to hinder the brain’s ability to break down glucose. According to Axona’s marketing materials, the supplement provides an alternative energy source that the brain can use instead of glucose.

It’s not clear what benefits, if any, Axona provides. A small study, funded by the manufacturers of the product, found that memory and cognition improved for people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease. However, more studies are needed to determine its safety and effectiveness, and Alzheimer’s patients are having various degrees of results.

Axona is marketed as a medical food. Medical foods are specially formulated and processed foods that help manage a disease or condition that causes nutritional deficiencies. The Alzheimer’s Association, however, disputes the notion that Alzheimer's disease causes nutritional deficiencies and requires a medical food.

Medical foods are given only under the supervision of a doctor. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t require the same high level of approval for medical foods as it does for prescription medications.

Until more is known, the Alzheimer’s Association doesn’t recommend the use of medical foods, including Axona, for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The following are some of their concerns.

 

Concerns about Alternative Therapies

There are a number of alternative treatments available to Alzheimer’s patients. See www.alz.org for details. Although some of alternative remedies may be valid candidates for treatments, there are legitimate concerns about using such drugs as an alternative or in addition to physician-prescribed therapy:

 

·       Effectiveness and safety are unknown.
The rigorous scientific research required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the approval of a prescription drug is not required by law for the marketing of dietary supplements. The maker of a dietary supplement is not required to provide the FDA with the evidence on which it bases its claims for safety and effectiveness.

·       Purity is unknown.
The FDA has no authority over supplement production. It is a manufacturer’s responsibility to develop and enforce its own guidelines for ensuring that its products are safe and contain the ingredients listed on the label in the specified amounts.

• Dietary supplements can have serious interactions with prescribed medications.
  No one should take a supplement without first consulting a physician.

 

AlternativesForSeniors.com recommends that you speak with your doctor before trying any alternative treatments, as they say, the doctor knows best.

 

BLOG Date: Thursday, June 4, 2015
Writer: Ryan Allen