“There's no cure for dementia” is the plaintiff cry emanating from the Conventional Medical Establishment. Dementia, we are told, is the inevitable passing of years, the relentless process of ageing.
I disagree! It is not that straightforward. Lots of people reach their 80’s, 90’s, and 100’s, fully compos mentis, Why do so many more fail to do so now? At the same time an increasing number of people are not reaching their 50’s with sound mind, memory and understanding. So why is dementia now affecting so many younger people? These trends need to be explained.
No disease is ever successfully treated or cured unless the cause is known. Only when the cause can be removed, the disease can be prevented. And if you can avoid the cause you can avoid the disease!
What is dementia?
There are over 100 forms of dementia, the most common being Alzheimer’s disease. I am not going to differentiate between them here, for reasons that will become clearer later.
Dementia seriously and progressively restricts the individual’s ability to carry out normal daily functions and activities of living. Ultimately, dementia can destroy every faculty that makes us human. It affects parts of the brain that control our thought, our memory, our social interaction, what we say and do, and out lives. Dementia progressively depletes mental agility, thinking speed, and leads to memory loss, understanding, and judgement. It can affect our personality, increasing apathy, and inability to control of emotions, growing disinterest in friends and surroundings, and much more.
Trends in Dementia
Dementia is now an epidemic. If we confine our attention to Alzheimer’s disease, it is just over 120 years ago that neurologist, Alois Alzheimer, first described it. His patient was a woman who developed dementia in her 50s and died in 1906. Now, Alzheimer’s disease is the foremost form of dementia, estimated to affect 24 million people around the world. The disease has been described as “a ticking time bomb”. Alzheimer’s Disease International has projected that by 2040 there will be some 81 million sufferers throughout the world, with much of this increase being in the ‘developed’ world. The ‘developed world’ is, of course, the part of the world that consumes most pharmaceutical drugs!
The UK’s Alzheimer’s Society published a major study on the social and economic impact of dementia in 2007 and 2014. Both were undertaken by King’s College London, and the London School of Economics. They provided the most detailed insights into the prevalence and impact of dementia in Britain.
One in 79 (1.3%) of the entire UK population, and 1 in 14 of those aged 65 years plus now has dementia. The majority are women.
In 2007 they estimated that there were 700,000 people living with dementia in the UK. In 2014 this had risen to 850,000 people.
The total number of people with dementia in the UK is forecast to increase to over 1 million by 2025, to over 2 million by 2051.
There are now 42,325 people with early-onset dementia (onset before the age of 65 years) and 773,502 people with late-onset dementia (onset after the age of 65 years) in the UK. In 2007 the figure given was 15,000 for early onset.
In total, 311,730 people with dementia in the UK are living in care homes, of whom 180,500 are living in residential care and 131,230 in nursing homes.
Among people with late-onset dementia, 311,730 (38.7%) are living in care homes (either residential care or nursing homes) and 493,639 (61.3%) are living in the community.
The total cost of dementia to society in the UK is £26.3 billion, with an average cost of £32,250 per person. (The total cost figure in 2007 was £17 billion).
So dementia has become a serious problem. But it is not a problem that is being addressed adequately by the Conventional Medical Establishment.
What is the cause of dementia?
The NHS website describes the causes of dementia in line with the approach of conventional medicine generally.
“Dementia is caused by gradual changes and damage in the brain. The most common causes of dementia include diseases in which the brain cells degenerate and die more quickly than they would as part of the normal ageing process. The changes usually happen because of a build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain. This damage leads to a decline in a person’s mental and, sometimes, physical abilities.”
As it so often does, conventional medicine is providing a physical description of what happens to the brain; it fails to deal with what causes those physical changes. Clearly anyone who develops dementia has suffered some kind of brain damage. The question is, or should be, what has caused the brain to lose its ability to function and operate normally; and why is it that other people do not develop this dysfuncction?
So often, the main excuse conventional medicine provides for the epidemic rise of dementia has been that ‘people are living longer’, that dementia is ‘a normal part of ageing’. There are three reasons to question whether this is an adequate or even a viable explanation.
Many people live to advanced old age without suffering any noticeable form of dementia.
many people are now contracting dementia in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. The conventional medical establishment now calls this ‘early onset dementia’.
The epidemic rise of dementia, in all its forms, far outstrips any rise in demographic trends.
The Pharmaceutical Drugs known to cause Dementia
The cause of the dementia, like so many other diseases, is often said by conventional medicine to be ‘unknown’. They might mention factors such as genetics, family history; and life style factors such as smoking, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. And no doubt all these factors play a small part. Yet none seem sufficient to explain the extraordinary rise in dementia.
Could it be that the cause of dementia is not really ‘unknown’, least of all a puzzle to the Conventional Medical Establishment. The magazine ‘What Doctors Don’t Tell You’ (WDDTY) in October 2015 stated
“Evidence is emerging that a large coterie of drugs for conditions such as high cholesterol, depression and insomnia can all bring on dementia”.
The self-published book by Grace E Jackson, ‘Drug Induced Dementia - a perfect crime’ catalogues the vast amount of scientific evidence that pharmaceutical drugs are a primary cause of all forms of dementia. Anyone who is concerned about contracting Alzheimer’s Disease, or anyone who is caring for someone diagnosed with dementia, should read this book.
The rise of dementia almost exactly mirrors the increased consumption of prescribed drugs during the last 100+ years. And the incidence of dementia is also reflects the amount of drugs consumed by different countries throughout the world.
So does the Conventional Medical Establishment know about this link? The patient harm that pharmaceutical drugs do is contained within the own literature, including the link with dementia. Sometimes their own medical journals discuss the link. For instance, the Medscape website has published an article entitled “Definition of Drug-Induced Cognitive Impairment in the Elderly”, which states:
“Numerous drugs have been identified in ..... causing a multitude of psychiatric symptoms, including hallucinations, fearfulness, insomnia, paranoia, depression, delusions, bizarre behaviour, agitation, anxiety, panic attacks, manic symptoms, hypomania, depersonalisation, psychosis, schizophrenic relapse, aggressiveness, nightmares, vivid dreams, excitement, disinhibition, rage, hostility, mutism, hyper-sexuality, suicidality, crying, hyperactivity, euphoria, dysphoria, lethargy, seizures, Tourette-like syndrome, obsessiveness, fear of imminent death, illusions, emotional lability, sensory distortions, impulsivity, and irritability, which can impact on mental capacity. Further, there are a number of medications that may be linked to causing cognitive impairment by inducing delirium, confusion, disorientation, memory loss, amnesia, stupor, coma, or encephalopathy.”
So an important question arises. Why does the Conventional Medical Establishment ignore this when communicating with the general public? Why do they insist that the cause of dementia is “unknown”. Why do they consistently suggest that the causes are demographic, or genetic? Most important, have patients and their families ever been informed that pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines might be an important cause dementia, or indeed that there is such a thing as ‘drug-induced cognitive impairment’?
One outcome of such honesty and transparency would be the emergence of a safe preventative treatment for dementia. STOP PRESCRIBING THE DRUGS!
And has the general public been made aware of the drugs we should all be avoiding in order to prevent dementia, or indeed any of the other brain-related illness? Medscape has done so in its article, providing a long list of drugs to be avoided.
“Among these drugs are: acyclovir, anticholinergics and atropine, anticonvulsants, tricyclic antidepressants, asparaginase, baclofen, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers, buspirone, caffeine, chlorambucil, chloroquine, clonidine, clozapine, cytarabine, digitalis glycosides, disulfiram, dronabinol, ganciclovir, histamine-2 antagonists, ifosfamide, interleukin-2, ketamine, levodopa, maprotiline, mefloquine, methyldopa, methylphenidate, metrizamide, metronidazole, pergolide, phenylpropanolamine, pilocarpine, propafenone, quinidine, salicylates, seligiline, sulfonamides, trazodone, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Often these medications produce more than 1 type of psychiatric symptom.”
But there is much more, known links between pharmaceutical drugs and dementia.
Vaccine ingredients: aluminium and mercury
The association between dementia and aluminium and mercury is well established. In modern society we have increased our contact with these poisonous substances. This includes contact through dental amalgam fillings (a mercury based compound placed routinely in our teeth, in the wet environment of the mouth that leeches this poison into our bodies, close to our brain)!
And both aluminium and mercury have been an ingredient of most, if not all vaccines in the last 70 years. These vaccines are, or course, usually injected directly into our bloodstreams which means that toxic ingredients have a direct route to our brain!
The Influenza Vaccine
Dr Hugh Fudenberg, MD, one of the world’s leading immuno-geneticists, found that people who have had 5 consecutive ‘flu vaccinations between 1970 and 1980 (the years he studied) the chance of getting Alzheimer’s Disease was 10 times higher than those who had one, 2 or no shots. Dr. Fudenberg said that this was due to the mercury and aluminium elements in ‘flu vaccinations, and that the gradual mercury and aluminium build-up in the brain causes cognitive dysfunction. (Hugh Fudenberg, MD, is Founder and Director of Research, Neuro lmmuno Therapeutic Research Foundation, and this information came from transcribed notes of his speech at the NVIC International Vaccine Conference, Arlington, VA September, 1997).
Dr Haley, in NeuroReport, 12(4): 733-737, 2001, said this about the association between mercury and Alzheimer’s disease.
“Seven of the characteristic markers that we look for to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease can be produced in normal brain tissues, or cultures of neurons, by the addition of extremely low levels of mercury. In addition, research has shown that Alzheimer’s diseased patients have at least 3 times higher blood levels of mercury than controls. How much more research is necessary before the appropriate regulatory bodies respond with restrictions on the use of mercury-leaking dental amalgam fillings and ALL vaccines?”
Antidepressant Drugs
Antidepressant drugs have regularly been linked with dementia. WDDTY (Oct 2015) in its article ‘The Damaged Brain’ says that antidepressants appear to target the brain’s white matter, causing damage and functional impairment. It quotes four studies (Stroke, 2008; 39:857-862, ProcNatlAcadSciUSA, 2003;100:1387-92, AmJPathol, 20012; 158: 453-68, JAffectDisord, 2009;117:24-29) that “have found a greater incidence of dementia among populations using antidepressants.”
In a Danish study, including all patients treated with antidepressants, “the rate of developing dementia was increased compared to the rate among persons unexposed to antidepressants. Nevertheless, the rate of dementia changed over time; thus during the initial prescription periods the rate increased with the number of prescriptions”.
Antipsychotic Drugs
WDDTY (Oct 2015) also outlines the known links between dementia and antipsychotic drugs such as Clozaril, Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel. It highlighted two studies, (IntJGeriatrPsychiaatry 2005; 20: 872-5, AlzheimerDisAssocDisord, 1994;8: 2011; 211-27) that focused on autopsy studies which showed that those who had taken antipsychotic drugs showed evidence of brain deterioration “suggestive of Alzheimer’s, or some other form of dementia”, both indicating that taking antipsychotics more than doubled the patients chances of having dementia.
Another study (JNeurolNeurosurgPsychiatry, 2007; 78:233-9) found that taking an antipsychotic drug alongside an antidepressant quadrupled the patients’ chances of having dementia.
A UK study (LancetNeurol, 2009; 8: 151-7) found that antipsychotic drugs were not effective in doing what they were supposed to do, but were associated with greater cognitive decline.
And in another British study (AgeAgeing, 1998; 27:181-8), which looked at every case in a dementia register for 1993-4, found that 13% had a past history of psychiatric treatment, and the use of psychiatric drugs was nearly four times greater among those who had gone on to develop dementia.
Statin Drugs
WDDTY (October 2015) outlined the evidence linking dementia with Statins. These drugs, according to claims made by conventional medicine, lower cholesterol, and thereby help to keep Alzheimer’s at bay. They do not, and as the article says, there is no evidence that they do.
“…the lack of effectiveness of statins for treating AD was firmly established in 2009, when two reviewers independently analysed two large-scale randomised controlled trials… Their conclusion was that statins given late in life to people at risk of vascular disease won’t prevent AD or dementia”.
In fact, as the article suggests, it is now becoming clear that cholesterol has a useful role in maintaining brain function, which means that any attempt to lower cholesterol (with statins or any other drugs) has the exact opposite effect. Professor Yeon-Kyun Shin, who undertook this research, is quoted as saying:
“If you try to lower the cholesterol by taking medicine that is attacking the machinery of cholesterol synthesis in the liver, that medicine goes to the brain too. And then it reduces the synthesis of cholesterol, which is necessary in the brain”.
Benzodiazepine Drugs, and other sedatives/sleeping pills
Benzodiazepine drugs, including that well-known ex-‘wonder’ drug Valium, are not only addictive, with long-term side effects, and associated with many deaths: they are also connected with a 50% increased risk of dementia. Research was published in the British Medical Journal in 2014, “Benzodiazepine use and risk of Alzheimer’s disease: case control study” which concluded:
“Benzodiazepine use is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The strong association observed for long term exposure reinforces the suspicion of a possible direct association even if Benzodiazepine use might also be an early marker of a condition associated with an increased risk of dementia. Unwarranted long term use of these drugs should be considered as a public health concern.”
Doctors know about this link. The GP magazine, Pulse, published an article “Benzodiazepine use linked with the development of dementia” in September 2012.
“Patients taking benzodiazepines have more than a threefold increased risk of developing dementia, shows a long-term UK epidemiological study. Welsh researchers followed more than 1,100 men over 22 years and found 9% of them took benzodiazepines regularly at some point during the study…. This level of risk remained when researchers adjusted to take account of factors such as psychological distress”.
Despite this, Benzodiazepine drugs continue to be prescribed; and often for more than the one month limit that has been imposed on them.
WDDTY (Oct 2015) confirms this picture, pointing to further studies linking Benzodiazepines with dementia, and explains how the link works.
“Newer studies show this has to do with their effect on brain gangliosides. These molecules, made up of fat and sugar, are largely found in brain lipids and covering every neutron. They are essential for regulating cell growth, forming neural synapses and responding to foreign invaders like toxins and bacteria. Without gangliosides, we lose the myelin on our nerve cells, or the entire neton, and may even die”.
One sleeping drug, Zolpidem, which comes under a variety of different names, was found in one study to increase the risk of getting dementia by a massive 84%!
Anticholinergic Drugs
Anticholinergic drugs are more common than many people may realise. Indeed, most will take them without realising they fall into this drug category. They are prescribed to relieve conditions such as insomnia and sleep problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic lung problems, poor digestion, tremors, muscle stiffness, weakness, anxiety and incontinence. Many are openly available, without prescription, at the local chemist!
An article in the British Medical Journal (Feb 2006; 332: 455-459) refers to research that suggests doctors should be aware that anticholinergic drugs can cause confusion, memory loss and disorientation. Karen Ritchie, the author of the article, told Reuters (London) said that:
“A large number of elderly people are taking medications that can mimic early dementia and are likely to be classed as having early dementia. A very large number of people with so-called early dementia have these effects due to drug consumption. The drugs they are taking are very common - they include things like antihistamines”
“What we showed is that many of the people who are classified in this way have it due to the medication they are taking, and not because they have early Alzheimer’s disease”.
WDDTY said this of the study demonstrates how quickly dementia can develop when taking these drugs.
“In a study of 3,690 older people taking anticholinergic medication, the researchers discovered that mental functioning began to be affected within 60 days”.
This 2020 study also confirms the link between anticholinergic drugs with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, “Association of anticholinergic medication and AD biomarkers with incidence of MCI among cognitively normal older adults”.
Even the UK’s Alzheimers Society is aware of this study because they too have published it. But then, like so many other patient support organisations they are heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry!
Antihistamine and Allergy Drugs
Antihistamines are also anticholinergic drugs. The abstract of one study, published on the PubMed website, says the following:
“Antihistamines are frequently administered to psychiatric patients for a variety of purposes. Several large studies of schizophrenics have revealed an extremely high prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology compared with that in the general population. The neuroleptic treatment of schizophrenia appears to be implicated in this phenomenon. Many of the neuroleptics have anticholinergic effects, some being antihistamines…. It is proposed here that anticholinergics, including many antihistamines, either exacerbate the Alzheimer process or possibly contribute to its etiology / pathogenesis through their effects on cerebral cholinergic systems”.
Proton-Pump Inhibitors (PPI’s)
PPI’s reduce the amount of acid made by the stomach, and are used to treat acid reflux and ulcers of the stomach and the gut. The link between PPI drugs and dementia is confirmed in several studies. One, ‘Acid inhibitors may raise risk of developing dementia’ found that they may lead to confusion, delirium and dementia, and particularly that memory problems were seen in older black people, who were chronic users. Another, ‘Risk of dementia in elderly patients with the use of proton pump inhibitors’ assessed the association between PPI use and the risk of dementia in older people. It concluded that PPI patients had a significantly increased risk of any form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, compared with non-users.
“Due to the major burden of dementia on public health and the lack of curative medication, this finding is of high interest to research on dementia and provides indication for dementia prevention”.
Yet this study, ‘Inappropriate prescribing of proton pump inhibitors in older patients: effects of an education strategy’ found that there was frequent prescribing of PPI drugs for older patients that was entirely inappropriate, and “independently associated with co-morbidities and dementia”.
Epilepsy Drugs
These have been implicated as a cause of dementia in a Finish study published in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 2018;; doi: 10.1111/jgs.15358). It found that anti-epileptic drugs, known to impair cognitive function, also raise the risk of dementia by 60%, and Alzheimer’s by 20%, and that the risk is even higher if the regular dose of the drug is higher.
Hormone Replacement Therapy. (HRT)
Researchers from the University of Helsinki analysed the medical histories of more than 84,000 women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s between 1999 and 2013, comparing them with women without dementia. (BMJ 2019. 364:1665). They calculated that women who had taken HRT for more than 10 years had a 17% increased risk of contracting the disease.
This finding runs counter to what the conventional medical establishment are now telling us - that HRT had a ‘protective’ effect against Alzheimers’. Apparently some of the compounds from HRT drugs have been seen in the brain plaques that are common in Alzheimers.
H2 BlockerDrugs
H2 blockers, or H2 receptor antagonists, have been marketed since 1976 as Tagamet. Impaired cognitive function is the most frequently reported adverse effect of H2 blockers, especially with older people. They have been found to cause delirium, hallucinations, confusion, disorientation, hostility, psychosis and paranoia. (AnnInternMed, 1991:114: 1027-34).
Prostate Cancer Treatment
ADT drugs (androgen deprivation therapy) is a standard treatment for prostate cancer and has been linked with dementia. It lowers levels of testosterone, which protects against the brain disorder.. A study of nearly 17,000 patients showed the men using ADT doubled their chance of getting dementia. (JClinOncol, 2015; doi: 10.1200/JCO.2015.63.6266).
Oxybutynin (Ditropan)
This drug is an ‘antimuscarinic’, a family of drugs derived from mushrooms designed to control an overactive bladder. It is regularly prescribed by doctors even though it is known to trigger dementia. Indeed, WDDTY state that research has found Oxybutynin has been “consistently linked” with dementia and cognitive impairment. Yet despite its known side effects, it is still prescribed to 27% of elderly people with an overactive bladder.
Poly-pharmacy
Mixing drugs, or taking many drugs at the same time, as so many older people do on the advice of conventional doctors, is also implicated in causing dementia. As the WDDTY website says:
“Multiple medications - known as poly-pharmacy - can fog the brain, while diabetes and high blood pressure (hypertension) drugs can also accelerate cognitive decline, say researchers from the University of Michigan Medical School. It’s a difficult balance to get right, say the researchers, but doctors and patients shouldn’t overdo the pharmaceutical response to hypertension and diabetes. Low blood pressure and low blood sugar are directly associated to cognitive performance”.
Perhaps in order to avoid dementia, ‘getting the balance right’ is easier than these researchers believe. Recognise the culpability of pharmaceutical drugs in creating the current epidemic of dementia, refuse to take, and look for safer alternative treatments!
Drugs for People who already have Dementia!
Older people who already have dementia are often ‘treated’ with pharmaceutical drugs that themselves are known to have a negative effect on cognition, according to data from approximately 13 million individuals presented at the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting.
“Classes of medications including anticholinergics, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, and non-benzodiazepine sedatives (Z drugs) have been identified as potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in patients with dementia, according to the American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults.”
Other Drugs
Long as this list of drugs is it is not an exhaustive one but it should be a precautionary warning.
Nor should it be a surprise that powerful and toxic pharmaceutical drugs can cause dementia. The brain is the most delicate organ we have, and the most easily damaged.
The connection is usually not shared with us by the Conventional Medical Establishment. But any cursory examination of the British National Formulary, or websites like Drugs.com, demonstrates that most pharmaceutical have ‘confusion’, ‘disorientation’, memory loss, and many other symptoms of dementia, as a drug ‘side-effect’.
So there is strong evidence to connect dementia with drugs. Yet this study, “Drug-induced cognitive impairment: delirium and dementia”, provides this admission, and this advice.
“Because cognitive impairment caused by drugs is so frequently overlooked, it is important that when symptoms of confusion, altered concentration or difficulty thinking occur that you and your physician review any medications you are taking to determine if any of them might be the cause.” (My emphasis).
CT Scans
Nor is it just pharmaceutical drugs that can cause dementia. Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark found that having two CT scans in a lifetime can start to change our brain at the molecular level. They found that even low radiation doses, the equivalent of two CT scans, can trigger molecular changes in the brain that cause cognitive dysfunction. This was reported in WDDTY (February 2017), reference Oncotarget, 2016; doi:10.18632/Oncotarget.12376.
The Safe Treatment for Dementia
The NHS website says that most types of dementia cannot be cured. “There is currently no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, although medication is available that can temporarily reduce some symptoms or slow down the progression of the condition in some people”. So the website deals mainly with ‘care plans’, ‘palliative treatment’, ’supportive measures’, and cognitive behavioural therapy to reduce depression. All these recognise that there is no treatment for dementia other than its management.
There are some drugs that Conventional Medicine sometimes uses, such as Donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon). These ACE inhibitors are prescribed for people with early to mid-stage Alzheimer’s disease. When describing these drugs, NHS Choices described their action as follows:
“A number of medications may be prescribed for Alzheimer’s disease to help temporarily improve some symptoms and slow down the progression of the condition”.
So perhaps the best advise that conventional medicine can give you about the safe and effective treatment of dementia is for you to stop taking pharmaceutical drugs! However, I suspect you no one will ever be given this advice.
The Homeopathic Treatment of Dementia
Anyone suffering from any form of dementia should realise that when conventional medicine says there is ‘no treatment’ for a disease (which they often do) it actually means that there is no conventional treatment for the disease. It also means that conventional medicine does not want people to get to know that there are other forms of treatment available to them!
Homeopathy is a medical therapy that avoids the side-effects and adverse drug reactions of conventional medical treatment. Homeopathy is the second most popular medical therapy in the world, and the most popular holistic system of medicine. Homeopathy is based on remedies made from a variety of substances, all of which are known to cause symptoms of illness when taken in their normal form. However, homeopathy has discovered that substances that cause symptoms of illness can also be used (in homeopathic potency) to cure those same symptoms of illness.
This is the principle of “Like cures Like” on which all homeopathy is based.
The task of the homeopath is to find a remedy whose symptom picture matches the same symptoms of a person’s illness. Remedy symptom pictures have been developed over the last 230 years.
Homeopathy does not differentiate, it does not need to differentiate, between the different type of dementia. The selection of a homeopathic remedy is based on the individual’s symptoms of illness, not on the basis of any broad conventionally-defined illness diagnosis.
It is important to stress that homeopathy does not treat conventionally diagnosed illness or disease directly. It treats patients who have individual symptoms. So the homeopathic treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, individualises the process. The following remedy descriptions, taken mainly from the Hpathy website, describe some of the dementia characteristics the remedies are known to treat.
Alumina
An excellent remedy for those who are depressed and afraid of losing their minds. They become confused with their identities and experience rapidly changing moods. Patients are often chilly, constipated, and very hurried in their actions and movements.
Baryta Carb
Helps those who have regressed back to childish behaviour. They may be fearful, timid and shy and lack confidence. There is loss of memory and some patients may suffer from chronic glandular disorders.
Calcaria Carb
Complete lack of development of brain and other organs with forgetfulness. Slowness and inability to acquire knowledge.
Chamomilla
Sensitiveness; irritability, peevishness; very easily angered and suffers profoundly as a result thereof.
Ignatia
Extreme mental sensitiveness due to grief, disappointment in love affairs.
Lycopodium
Great depression of spirits; despondent; worried about his salvation; about being able to perform his duties; about passing in examination, fretful, irritable, morose, very vehement and angry. Constipation, eructations of sour food.
Mercurius
Complete loss of all sense of decency; filthy in body with grovelling mentality; great weakness of memory; impaired vision; foul breath; heavy coated tongue.
Natrum Sulph
Can often bring relief to those who are fixated with and dwell on past hurts and unpleasant events. They may feel sad and lonely, be filled with self-pity, or be unable to express the love they feel for others. These people often have headaches and painful joints.
Nux Vom
Often angry, quarrelsome, irritable, disposition to find fault with everything and every body. Extreme sensitiveness to the words and attention of others, easily hurt, can be insensitive to other’s feelings. May want to commit suicide but is too cowardly to do so; very irritable, quarrelsome, vindictive.
Staphisagria
Sleeplessness. Coward with shamefulness, disgust, humiliation, despair, shyness with desire for solitude
Tarentula
Rages over something and throws whatever in hand and whatever he could reach. On slightest contradiction or objection he will hit the person with whatever he can get hold of.
These are very short definitions of remedies that are much more complex. It is always advisable to consult with a qualified homeopath who will have much greater, and more precise knowledge of the kind of issues particular remedies can deal with, and linking the individual with the most similar, and thus the most effective remedy.
These are some longer, more detailed descriptions of three few homeopathic remedies that have been developed.
Alumina
The remedy Alumina, or Aluminium, is perhaps the most well-known of the homeopathic treatments for dementia. Patients who need Alumina are very absent-minded. They find it difficult to concentrate on anything and their memory is poor. They can appear generally slow and dull, especially when they first wake up, and can get very upset or angry if you try to hurry them along. As the disease progresses they become confused and disoriented. Physically, Alumina patients are often slow and unsteady on their feet. They shuffle or stagger as they walk. Their legs feel heavy and almost paralysed. The same paralysis affects the digestive tract and the patients can find it difficult to swallow and also to pass even soft stools. They can develop a craving for indigestible things such as coal or earth.
Anacardium
One of the main themes associated with Anacardium is that of duality; the patient is split into two personalities or feels pulled in two conflicting directions. This makes it particularly appropriate for patients who switch from periods of clear thought and normal behaviour to times when they do not recognise family or friends and appear extremely fearful or aggressive. At times they appear as if nothing is wrong with them. They are happy to see their loved ones and will talk easily about their plans for the day, what they have been watching on TV, places they have visited. On another day that personality seems to have disappeared and is replaced with somebody who yells “Who are you? Why am I here? I want to go home.” They lash out at their family members or their carer. They recognise nobody and are terrified that everybody wants to harm them.
Anacardium has a terrible feeling of inferiority. In dementia this can manifest itself as a feeling that they have no control over their life. They know that their memory is weak and that they find it hard to make decisions. But they resent the way that other people seem to organise and control them. They want to choose their own activities and pastimes, but they can’t remember what they enjoy doing. When somebody offers a suggestion they are angry and abusive, often using bad language and even biting or spitting.
Baryta Carb
This remedy has been described as a gentler version of Anacardium. Like the Anacardium patients, those needing Baryta carbonica have no self-confidence. However, unlike Anacardium, these patients have often displayed an obvious lack of confidence and low self-esteem all their lives. Anacardium are strong-willed and even appear arrogant as they strive to hide their feelings of inadequacy.
Baryta carb is often used as a remedy for children but it is equally relevant to adults who display childish behaviour. They are tremendously shy and, when approached or spoken to they may grab tightly onto the arm of their carer, or in some cases even hide behind them. As the dementia progresses they seem to revert to childhood. They wander around clutching a doll or a teddy bear. Once they feel reassured enough to talk to you they will tell you all about their toy – its name, what it likes to eat or drink, whether it has been good or naughty.
Baryta carb patients are generally very emotional. They can burst into floods of tears about the most minor upset. The cause of the tears may be so slight that you struggle to work out what has upset them.
Baryta carbonica has a marked effect on the cardiovascular system. It affects the muscular walls of the heart and the blood vessels, causing palpitations, distended arteries and aneurism. It can therefore be a useful remedy for cases of vascular dementia.
Cannabis Indica
The homeopathic remedy Cannabis indica is completely legal and available in the UK because of the amount of dilution involved in producing homeopathic remedies. As you might expect from a substance that affects the nervous system (and in its raw form can create a feeling of euphoria as well as hallucinations) Cannabis indica has a profound effect on the mental state. It is a very important remedy in the treatment of dementia, particularly where there is tremendous fear of insanity. The patients know that their memory is failing and they are are terrified about what will happen to them.
Cannabis indica has a very notable effect on the patient’s communication skills. People who need this remedy can be very excitable and talkative, and yet they have difficulty remembering words or phrases. This makes it seem as if they are gibbering and talking nonsense. They stammer or stutter as they speak. During a sentence they struggle to find the correct words, or even completely forget what they were about to say. They can’t finish the sentence or they seem to change from one subject to another before reaching the end. They have similar problems with writing; they have to stop mid-sentence because they can’t remember the point that they were trying to make. Either they write very slowly and haltingly or they scribble quickly but what they have written doesn’t seem to make sense. When they read all the letters on the page seem to blend into each other.
Cannabis patients suffer from confusion and disorientation. They lose their way even when in familiar surroundings and can’t remember how to get home. In a care home they may wander around looking lost and afraid; they don’t remember where they are or have forgotten how to find their room. They can suffer from delusions and hallucinations and are often frightened of the dark.
Graphites
Graphites is a remedy for cases of dementia where the patient suffers from severe short-term memory loss but the long-term memory is good. They are reliving past memories. They believe themselves to be children and wander from one room to another, asking “Where is my mum?” Or they imagine that they are in their 30s or 40s and are in the middle of their working life. They say “I have to leave in a minute. I have to go to the office.” or they describe over and over again the tasks that they used to do in their job.
Because these patients imagine themselves to be in another age, they don’t recognise their own family members. They show no interest in their (grown up) children, because they do not fit the images that they have in their minds. They turn away from their husbands or wives because they imagine themselves to be youngsters and they have no memory of their spouses. This is how the “indifference” of Graphites can manifest itself in dementia.
Graphites patients are usually very weepy and can sometimes be confused with Pulsatilla, especially as they are often overweight and like to be out in the fresh air. But unlike Pulsatilla they are chilly and complain about the slightest draught. Graphites affects the skin and these patients might also suffer from dry skin that cracks and bleeds. You will find their carers applying cream (often Cetraben) to the patients’ skin after bathing.
Hyoscyamus
This remedy can be very effective for dementia patients who are highly sexed and display themselves with complete abandon. They masturbate openly in front of other people, show no embarrassment and, when reprimanded for their behaviour may laugh gleefully. They understand that such explicit sexual behaviour is “naughty” and that is one of the major reasons for doing it. They love to shock other people and get great enjoyment both from the masturbation itself and the reactions that they get.
This same desire to shock and offend can lead them to use bad language and rude gestures. They swear at their family members or carers when it is time for bathing or for their medication. Hyoscyamus patients are very suspicious and imagine that the carers are trying to poison them or harm them in some way.
Patients that need Hysocyamus can be quite malicious towards other people. They may kick or hit out at the people who are trying to help them, or at other patients (particularly those that are timid or easily bullied). If they make somebody cry they show no remorse and may even laugh uncontrollably. They think it is funny that the person is upset.
Evidence Supporting Homeopathy
There is a significant and growing amount of evidence confirming that homeopathy is a safe and effective medical therapy.
The most important proof is clinical experience, that is, the many millions of patients who, having suffered serious illness, have been treated successfully with homeopathy. This is going on throughout the world, and been doing so for over 230 years.
Homeopathy has also developed a voluminous Materia Medica. This contains intricate details of the healing properties of several thousand substances that are used to make homeopathic remedies. The short remedy pictures above are just a tiny part of this knowledge.
Scientific studies are the third most important evidence for the safety and effectiveness of homeopathy. There have been studies suggesting that the progress of Alzheimer’s disease can be slowed by homeopathic treatment. These studies have been discussed here. It concludes that a Homeopath should be consulted in the treatment of Alzheimer’s.
The German homeopathy company, Heel, has also been working on the homeopathic treatment of dementia, and in its article on a 2011 Neuorscience convention in Washington presented several studies on a multi-target medication based on low dose natural substances that had proven to positively influence both symptoms as well as disease-related mechanisms of Alzheimer’s. This concludes with this statement:
“All studies have confirmed our earlier observations: this medication has proven to enhance the learning and memory performance significantly in a dose-dependent fashion”, says Dr. Bernd Seilheimer from Heel. “It showed at least as effective as the Gold Standard at all tested behavioural models. In addition, it is very well-tolerated. No negative side-effects could be documented with the natural preparation. Following the new paradigm, multi-target preparations could become a natural alternative to conventional preparations for treating complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s.”
