The Emperor's New Clothes Meets the Elephant in the Room

Say hello to yet another risk factor for Alzheimer's disease

It would appear that mainstream media is once again awash with the latest risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. This time a mutation in a protein called SHMOOSE. I am immediately both intrigued and suspicious. Are the perpetrators of this latest scientific breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease attempting a schmooze!? Are we to be cajoled and manipulated into thinking that the science behind the discovery of this protein is the next recipient of the Alzheimer’s dollar. Is this the next scamyloid? The identification of this mutated protein, if proven to be correct, is new. However, there is nothing new about the discovery of proteins linked with the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease. Decades of research revealing such proteins have nearly always heralded new potential treatments for the disease and yet no effective therapies have ever been forthcoming. While the cost of Alzheimer’s research continues to skyrocket with the application of more and more sophisticated methods the numbers of people dying with Alzheimer’s disease is burgeoning. If a mutation in SHMOOSE is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s then, according to the authors’ own perhaps optimistic predictions the mutation might help to explain 20-50% of cases. Twenty to 50%? Are they schmoozing us with such a wide range of possibility?

Let me stick my neck out on this one. I know, not like me. Allow me to point out that a high level of aluminium in brain tissue was a 100% risk factor for individuals developing familial Alzheimer’s disease. I will go further in hope that the executioner’s blade will be true. In the sporadic form of Alzheimer’s disease 100% of sufferers had a high level of aluminium in their brain tissue. We can take this even further by pointing out that 100% of individuals dying without any neurological dysfunction and without any signs of neurodegenerative disease had practically no aluminium in their brain tissue. Where were the headlines in mainstream media heralding this science. What happened to the Alzheimer’s dollar in supporting this science. Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the pharmaceutical industry’s major cash cows bringing in billions of dollars every year from the sale of drugs that have been shown time and time again to have no effective benefit. Governments would rather support this status quo than bite the bullet and help to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a wholly preventable disease but, where’s the money in that.