Conventional Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease: Limited Available Options
By Devin Wilson, ND
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder in America. With approximately 5.4 million Americans and nearly 30 million patients affected globally its likely you know someone who is living with it.
Unfortunately, at this time treatment options from your conventional doctor are limited as there are only a handful of approved medications.
These medications fall into two categories; ones that temporarily ease cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and ones that attempt to change or slow the progression of the disease.
Medications for treating cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease include Zunveyl, Aricept, Rzadyne, and Exelon. These are in a drug class called cholinesterase inhibitors. Common side effects include diarrhea, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite and others.
Another medication called Namenda, which regulates levels of glutamate, is also used to treat cognitive symptoms in moderate to severe Alzheimer’s Disease. Common side effects include headache, constipation, confusion, dizziness and others.
Two other medications used to treat these non-cognitive symptoms Alzheimer’s Disease are Belsomra, which is approved for treating insomnia and Rexulti, which is approved for treating psychosis.
Common side effects of Belsomra include impaired alertness and motor coordination, depression, sleep paralysis, breathing problems
Common side effects of Rexulti include weight gain, sleepiness, dizziness, relentlessness, and increased risk of death in older adults with dementia-related psychosis.
Kisunla and Leqembi are the only approved medications for modifying the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease in the US.
Both of these medications are given intravenously and both have shown that removing beta-amyloid plaque from the brain slows cognitive decline and functional decline in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Common side effects of these medications include headache and mild to severe infusion-related reactions.
Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities (ARIA) which includes brain swelling and/or brain bleeds are serious potential side effects of both of these medications. If you have the APOE4 gene youre at higher risk.