Pharmaceutical Drugs CAN Cause Dementia

Is this Medscape article the first recognition from within the Medical Establishment that pharmaceutical drugs can, and do, cause Dementia? Will anyone take notice? Or act to protect patients?

          “Drug-related cognitive impairment is common in routine practice and should be considered in any individual receiving drug therapy who presents with cognitive symptoms. These effects can occur at any age and are associated with a wide range of medications. The long-term use of benzodiazepines, antidepressants with anticholinergic properties, and antipsychotics has been associated with cognitive decline, particularly in older adults. Although these impairments may be preventable through baseline cognitive assessment and regular monitoring, they are often mistaken for age-related or neurodegenerative conditions and therefore remain underrecognized”.

This is how the Medscape article introduces the causal link between drugs and dementia in its article “When Medications May Contribute to Cognitive Decline.

I have been making the link between dementia and pharmaceutical drugs for the last 20+. This is my article, dating back to 2009, “Is Dementia Caused by Pharmaceutical Drugs?. The rise and rise of dementia has, after all, been mirrored almost exactly by the rise and rise of the consumption of prescribed drugs. And, as I have often pointed out, the known side effects of many drugs include memory loss, attention deficits, confusion, disorientation in time or space, and other well-known symptoms of dementia.

So here I will do little more than to repeat what the Medscape article says. Medscape, after all, is part of the Conventional Medical Establishment. It is not usually critical of it. And it describes itself as “the leading online global destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide, offering the latest medical news and expert perspectives; essential point-of-care drug and disease information; and relevant professional education and CME”.

The Medscape article says that it undertook a literature review that examined “the clinical features and drug classes involved, highlighting the potential long-term consequences when these effects are not identified and managed”.

It discovered that“medication-related cognitive impairment is more prevalent than often assumed. Drugs are the leading cause of delirium and may account for up to 30% of cases in hospitalized older adults. Thus, polypharmacy doubles the risk”.

It said that “medication-related dementia accounts for an estimated 2.7%-10% of dementia cases”, and that “earlier studies have suggested that medications may represent the most common cause of reversible dementia, contributing to 28.2% of the cases. With increasing prescriptions and a higher number of medications per person, the burden is likely to be greater”.

It went on to say that “the risk increases sharply with the number of medications prescribed, increasing ninefold in individuals receiving four or more drugs. Polypharmacy affects approximately 29% of individuals aged 65 years or older and nearly 42% of those aged 85 years or older”.

It says that “the severity ranges from mild cognitive impairment to dementia. In some cases, symptoms present acutely as delirium with hallucinations, illusions, or altered perception” and that “these impairments can appear shortly after drug initiation or may develop gradually. Severity often correlates with plasma drug concentration. Symptoms typically improve after dose reduction or discontinuation, although persistence for months or longer has been reported”.

So what pharmaceutical drugs does it implicate as contributing to the ongoing epidemic of dementia? They are exactly the same drugs that I previously outlines, 25+ years ago, here.

“Multiple drug classes have been associated with an increased risk for cognitive impairment, including antiepileptics, antidepressants, antiparkinsonian agents, antipsychotics, lithium, benzodiazepines, opioids, first-generation antihistamines, anticholinergics used for urinary incontinence, proton pump inhibitors, glucocorticoids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, antihypertensives, and anticancer therapies”.

It gives me little pleasure to say “I told you so”. I am not gloating. After all, it is not something to celebrate. In the intervening years, many millions of people have suffered dementia, in all its many forms. Their suffering has been caused by a medical system that regularly, and routinely, discounts/denies the harm that it does through the drugs it prescribes.

Medscape also refers to a 2023 literature review that assessed the cognitive safety of psychotropic medications in older adults. It “found that individuals with depression who had no baseline cognitive impairment were at greater risk for cognitive decline when treated with tricyclic antidepressants or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, particularly paroxetine, for at least 6 months compared with those not receiving these medications. These findings suggest that medications, rather than depression itself, may contribute to the decline, potentially through their anticholinergic effects”.

It continues. “Benzodiazepines, especially those with a long half-life of at least 20 hours, have also been associated with cognitive decline” and that “most studies have reported significant cognitive decline in older adults treated with antipsychotics, with a risk approximately double that of healthy individuals or equivalent to 1 year of neurodegenerative disease progression. This association has been observed for both conventional and atypical antipsychotics. The combination of antipsychotics with other psychotropic medications has also been linked to cognitive decline in older adults.

So what is Medscapes conclusion? What does it recommend? They suggest a response that appears to be a weak - to the point of being dismissive of the full implications.

“Experts recommend systematic cognitive assessment before prescribing these medications and then regularly throughout treatment. Comprehensive evaluation across multiple domains, ideally conducted by a neuropsychologist, is preferable, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination or the Montreal Cognitive Assessment”.

So drugs that even the conventional medical profession know cause dementia are still to be prescribed - but with more ‘evaluation’ and ‘assessment’! And I suspect that the medical establishment will do even less than this meagre suggestion. All pharmaceutical drugs are known to cause serious patient harm - not just dementia - and rarely if ever is anything done that would avoid future patient harm - other than taking “more care”. This is usually defended by using the (unproven) equation that a drug “does less harm than good”.

The Medscape article was published in 23 March 2026. I expect it to be ignored, forgotten, or even withdrawn! I do not expect Governments, the Mainstream Media, Patient Support Grounds (funded by Big Pharma), or the Conventional Medical Establishment, to take any notice of it. I predict that it will not be drawn to patients, and their families, attention, and that drugs known to cause dementia will continue to be prescribed by doctors.

Life will continue, as before, except perhaps for those people who will be unfortunate enough to suffer from drug-induced dementia.

Such is the power and control exercised by the Pharmaceutical Industry within society.

 

PS. This article is clearly very critical of the Pharmaceutical Medical Establishment. So it is likely to be censored/deleted by Blogger. However, it will still be on my new Substack forum. 

https://safemedicine.substack.com/p/pharmaceutical-drugs-can-cause-dementia.

Please follow me, or take up a free subscription, there.

 

What Pharmaceutical Drugs are known to cause Confusion, and Memory Loss, as a 'side effect'?

I have long believed that pharmaceutical drugs can, and do cause serious illness and disease. 

Now I discover that AI programmes agree with me. So are drugs the real cause of the dementia epidemic?

I began writing my ebook, “Iatrogenic Disease. The Disease Inducing Effects (DIEs) of Pharmaceutical Drugs and Vaccines” in 2007. If I had waited 18 years I need not have bothered! Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmes have achieved the task for me.

Recently the search engine I use, DuckDuckGo, added a ‘Search Assist’ feature. I typed the question above into this and received the following response.

“Several pharmaceutical drugs are known to cause confusion as a side effect, including benzodiazepines (like diazepam and lorazepam), tricyclic antidepressants, anticholinergic medications, and certain antihistamines. These medications can interfere with cognitive functions and may lead to increased confusion, especially in older adults”.

Given my research into my ebook I already knew this, but I had suspected that the Pharmaceutical Medical Establishment may have heavily invested in AI, and their money might have ‘skewed’ its response. I was pleased so I asked for more information. It provided useful information on the following classes of drug.

• Anticholinergic Drugs

• Incontinence Drugs

• Tricyclic Antidepressants

• Benzodiazepines

• Opioids

• Corticosteroids

• Antiseizure Drugs

Useful, yes, honest, yes, but not comprehensive. My webpage suggests that it could have told me about the following classes of drug.

• Antihistamine Drugs

• Proton Pump Inhibitors

• Hormone Replacement (HRT)

• Flu Vaccines

• and several others, including polypharmacy

Confusion is just one symptom of dementia. So I tried Memory Loss. If pharmaceutical drugs are known to cause this too, haven’t we arrived at a significant cause of the dementia epidemic?

“Common pharmaceutical drugs known to cause memory loss include benzodiazepines (like Xanax and Valium), tricyclic antidepressants (such as amitriptyline), anticholinergic medications, and certain anti-seizure drugs. These medications can impair memory function, particularly with long-term use or at high doses”.

My WhatsApp programme also gives me access to an AI programme, so I tried this with the same questions. Again, useful, honest if perhaps not comprehensive information was shared. I will not provide further quotations and examples though as I would like all my readers to find out important information about themselves - simply by asking this question within an AI platform.

“What Pharmaceutical drugs are known to cause ??(disease)?? as a ‘side effect’?”

The ??(disease)?? can be filled in by yourself - input the most serious illness you are suffering from, or have suffered; then have a look at the drugs known to cause your illness; then determine whether you have you taken them during your life; and then whether they could be a cause of your illness.

We should all be doing this! Patient harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs don’t affect “them”, they affect “us”. All of us. And as I have pointed out so many times before we are not told by our doctors about the harm they know they can cause. As I said in a recent article,

“The full extent of the harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs to human ill-health is almost completely unknown. Patients know, and we are told, about only a tiny proportion of what doctors know. And doctors know only a minute proportion of the total picture of the harm their drugs cause”.

If pharmaceutical drugs can cause, and are known to cause confusion and memory loss, we are well on our way to understanding one of the significant causes of the ongoing, and ever-growing dementia epidemic.

And if pharmaceutical drugs can cause serious illness and disease it brings us close to an important new treatment strategy:

Stop taking pharmaceutical drugs!

Gut Health is now linked to Alzheimer's Disease: so what has damaged our gut and led to the dementia epidemic?

Gut health has recently been linked to Alzheimer's disease (and therefore, probably, many cases of dementia as a whole). The study can be found here, "Common Gut Infection linked to Alzheimer's Disease". Any other industry, on learning this, might be expected to ask the next question. 

What is causing this infection, why has our gut been harmed?

But not, of course, pharmaceutical medicine! Whilst, for example, a car manufacturer might want to learn about problems that arising in their vehicles in order to remedy it, drug companies are weary about doing so as it might just identify one (or more) of their drugs as a cause of an unhealthy gut. And this would, of course, be bad for business!

Over 15 years ago I produced a list of pharmaceutical drugs that had been (and still are) linked to dementia and Alzheimer's disease. As you can see they include:

• vaccine ingredients such as mercury and aluminium derivatives
• the 'flu vaccine
• antidepressant drugs
• antipsychotic drugs
• statin drugs
• Benzodiazepine drugs, and other sleeping pills
• anticholinergic drugs
• antihistamine and other allergy drugs
• proton-pump inhibitors
• painkilling drugs
• epilepsy drugs
• HRT (hormone replacement therapy)
• and many more.

So is it any wonder that dementia, in all its forms, has increased to epidemic proportions during the last 70-100 years, mirroring the enormous rise in the consumption of all these drugs? Another common drug prescribed in vast quantities during this time are Antibiotic drugs - designed to kill bacteria - usually taken by mouth directly to the stomach - and so let loose on the beneficial bacteria of our gut microbiome. A direct, and surely an undeniable link!

        So is dementia caused by pharmaceutical drugs? 

        And does the pharmaceutical industry want to ask this question in order to discover what has been causing the epidemic of Alzheimer's disease?

We can be absolutely sure that the drugs do; but the industry don't! My e-Book, "Iatrogenic Disease: the "Disease-Inducing-Effects of Pharmaceutical Drugs", demonstrates that most common chronic diseases are, to one extent or another, linked to well-known 'adverse drug/vaccine' reactions.

Yet you will never hear this from the pharmaceutical industry, or the conventional medical establishment, or government, or the mainstream media - most of our main sources of information. 

Why? 

The drug industry is just too powerful to permit it; and it uses its vast wealth and influence to ensure that we do not get to know about it.

Is Dementia Preventable? The Dishonest Discussion of Disease Causation?

Why, when we consider the causation of serious illness and disease, is it rarely (if ever) associated with pharmaceutical drugs? Usually every other known cause (even the most unlikely suggestions) is mentioned - but never when drugs and vaccines are implicated?

The question arose for me when I read this article on the causation of dementia - "Almost 50% of Global Dementia may be Preventable". I have seen articles like this many times before, on many different diseases - articles that appear to be a comprehensive outline of all the known causes of a specific disease. What they all omit are well-documented facts - that pharmaceutical drugs are also a known cause. 

Shortly after reading this article I saw this "What Doctors Don't Tell You" article which does exactly the same thing. So not even WDDTY don't tell you what doctors don't tell you! That it is well known that drugs can cause dementia!

In fairness (to a magazine to which I subscribe) WDDTY did correct the situation in another article, "Dementia could be caused by Polypharmacy" in which it is said

            "Polypharmacy - taking three or more medications at the same time - could be increasing the chances of dementia. Around 82% of dementia patients are taking multiple prescription meds, say researchers from the University of Plymouth (Aging and Disease, 2022’ doi: 10.14336/AD.2022.0829). In a study of more than 33,000 dementia patients, the researchers discovered that polypharmacy was very common in the final five years before a dementia diagnosis. Around 65% of the patients were taking multiple meds for respiratory or urinary infections, rheumatism and heart disease, while a further 22% were being treated for infection, cardio-metabolic disease and depression".

It goes on to suggest that doctors "need to understand the way common drugs can impair cognition", not least as dementia cases are projected to rise to 1.6 million in the UK alone by 2040.

Yet doctors should already know that pharmaceutical drugs cause serious illness and disease as it can be seen very clearly in conventional medical literature. I have written about this before - the medical profession know full well that pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines cause dementia. How? The 'Patient Information Leaflets' (PILs) that accompany every drug and vaccine packet provide warnings about the (euphemistically called) 'side effects' of drugs; and many of them are known to cause 'confusion', 'disorientation', and many other accepted symptoms of dementia.

So why is this not mentioned in the above Medscape article? And why has the Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention (on which the Medscape article is based) not mentioned it either. Both these highly prestigious medical journals must be fully aware of this. The Medscape articles states:

            "Nearly half of dementia cases worldwide could theoretically be prevented or delayed by eliminating 14 modifiable risk factors during an individual's lifetime, a report from the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care. The report adds two new modifiable risk factors for dementia - high cholesterol and vision loss - to the 12 risk factors identified in the 2020 Lancet Commission report, which were linked to about 40% of all dementia cases. The original Lancet Commission report, published in 2017, identified nine modifiable risk factors that were estimated to be responsible for one third of dementia cases."

So the 14 'risk factors' outlined by the Lancet Commission, and in the Medscape article, notably exclude pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. The risk factors mentioned are:

• excessive alcohol intake,
• traumatic brain injury,
• air pollution,
• not completing secondary education,
• hypertension,
• obesity,
• hearing loss,
• smoking,
• depression,
• physical inactivity,
• social isolation,
• diabetes,
• high cholesterol,
• vision loss.

So why are pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines not mentioned? Did both the Lancet and Medscape forget? Throwing the net wider, why does the mainstream media not investigate the cause of the dementia epidemic? Why is the Government not interested? Why don't more patients (and families) question the omission? As usual with the conventional medical establishment, there is absolutely no transparency or honesty.

The underlying problem is that health, and healthcare services, are controlled by powerful vested interests which I collectively call "the pharmaceutical medical establishment". This includes government, conventional healthcare organisation, national drug regulators, and the mainstream media. Together they form the main sources of information that we (patients) have about matters health issues, and they make it impossible for us to make 'informed decisions' about whether or not to take drug and vaccines. 

So there is no debate. Within the pharmaceutical medical establishment is conducting a monologue, a "Narrative" like the one to which we were subjected over the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a monologue that no-one can question because they do not have the full information. Essentially this monologue is subjecting us to pharmaceutical advertising and promotion. Moreover this is promotion of a very special nature as the drug companies are not allowed to advertise (in Britain), and they do so subliminally, via government, the NHS, and the mainstream media.

So the Medscape and Lancet omissions were probably intentional. Both these medical journals, however prestigious, knew that they were not allowed to include pharmaceutical drugs/vaccines in their (otherwise) comprehensive list of dementia risk factors. The pharmaceutical industry is just too powerful, too influential, to allow information like this to reach the public. It would consider it to be 'bad publicity' for their drugs.

Moreover, medical journals (indeed the entire pharmaceutical medical establishment) are reluctant to admit that the drugs and vaccines they have hitherto regularly recommended can actually cause serious patient harm. The admission, for them, would presumably be too embarrassing.

After all, if 'pharmaceutical drugs' had been added to the risk factor list it would be yet another 'preventable' cause of dementia that would increase significantly the 50% of 'preventable' risk factors mentioned. The problem for drug companies is that preventing this particular cause of dementia would be particularly easy - patients could just stop taking the pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.

And the drug companies would certainly not want us to do this!

Postscript January 2025: This article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, "Manufactured Chemicals and Children's Health - The Need for New Law", repeats the offence of ascribing disease causation with anything and everything - except pharmaceutical drugs. This prestigious medical journal is able to point its finger at the chemical industry - but not the pharmaceutical industry. It even specifically excludes the industry.

        “Unlike pharmaceuticals, synthetic chemicals are brought to market with little prior assessment of their health impacts and almost no post-marketing surveillance for longer-term adverse health effects. …

That is undoubtedly true, whilst omitting to comment on the honesty and integrity of these "prior assessment of their health impacts" and the "post-marketing surveillance for longer-term health effects" of pharmaceutical drugs. It neither admits that conventional medical literature admits and charts the links between disease and pharmaceutical drugs, or mentions the plethora of drugs withdrawn and banned over the years because of the dishonesty and lack of integrity of drug testing and surveillance.

Alzheimers Drug Lecanemab Hailed as Momentous Breakthrough in Treatment of Dementia

Lecanemab has been heralded as good news for a medical system that is rapidly breaking down, Alzheimer's disease at epidemic levels, and the NHS now in terminal decline? 

Headlines in all the mainstream national media yesterday (30th November 2022) certainly suggests that it is. The Alzheimer's Society has described Lecanemab as "momentous". 

Yet is it really "good news"? Let's look more closely into what we are being told.

    1. Lecanemab slows down the destruction of the brain by up to one-quarter. 

    2. Lecanemab ends decades of failure in the development of effective drug treatment for Alzheimer's.

    3. Lecanemab could be the first of many more, improved Alzheimer's therapies in the years to come.

 

Each of the media reports I have seen, including BBC News, the Guardian, the 'I', the Times, LBC, tell us the same thing. No doubt they have all read a pharmaceutical drug release, and have reported it to us without question or serious discussion. Each sought to tell us just how good this news is, trying their hardest to justify the optimism.

However, there are many reasons for caution about this "breakthrough" - if not for downright cynicism!

* Early Onset. Lecanemab, we are told, works only in the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease. It is acknowledged that it would have no effect on those with moderate to severe dementia. And of course it would have no effect on people suffering from other forms of dementia.

* Early Diagnosis. There is no current protocol/technique/procedure to diagnose Alzheimer's in its early stages. I have heard that only 2% of people with Alzheimer's are diagnosed at this state, so many people will have dementia long before it is diagnosed, and the drug is no longer any good.

* The future promise. As usual, the 'good' news about this drug are projected into the future. Lecanemab might be available to prescribe in 2024. And any new "improved" drugs deveoped from Lecanemab would extend this much further into the future.

* Beta Amyloid. Lecanemab is described as attacking the "sticky gunge", called beta amyloid, that builds up in the brains of those suffering with Alzheimer's disease. Yet there is growing evidence (not mentioned) that this 'sticky gunge' is not the cause Alzheimer's, but merely a symptom resulting from the disease.

* Delaying the Onset of the Disease. If, as promised, Lecanemab delays the progress of the disease by one-quarter we need to understand exactly what this means. If it takes someone 2 years to progress to 'moderate' or 'advanced' dementia, and drug will extend this period to just 2.5 years.

* Adverse Reactions. Mainstream media announcements of new 'miracle' drugs happen regularly (and rarely/never come to fruition). Rarely are we informed of serious side effects, even if they are known. With Lecanemab, however, we have already told that it is known to cause brain welling and bleeding. Even in the drug trial, alone, 7% of patients had to be withdrawn because of serious adverse reactions.

 

* Treatment. Apparently treatment is to be conducted by infusion every two weeks, in a hospital setting. This is at a time when when the NHS is under severe pressure, and the additional time and resources this will cause will only add to this. The NHS is already unable to cope with the levels of sickness and patient demands for health care.
 

* Expensive. We are also told that the drug will be "extremely expensive", thus adding to the rapidly growing costs of conventional medical treatment, and the parlous state of NHS finances.

No doubt worse will follow. As with all pharmaceutical drug trials, the benefits of Lecanemab will (i) likely have been exaggerated, (ii) the adverse reactions to the drug not be known, or they will be under-stated, or not studied. Lecamemab is unlikely to be any different!

 

Evidence of the failure of the NHS, dominated and controlled as it is by pharmaceutical medicine, is now clearly visible for anyone who wishes to see. Nobody needs to be told about the parlous state of the nation's health, after 80 years of conventional medical treatment. The NHS is falling down around us. 

 

Yet the mainstream media, even at such a time, continues to pin it's hope on yet another pharmaceutical drug. This constitutes the victory of hope over experience! In terms of the ever-growing Alzheimer's / dementia epidemic, a genuine medical breakthrough would more likely happen if conventional medicine was able to identify what is causing an epidemic that has been getting progressively worse for at least the last 80 years!

 

This would be possible. Conventional medical literature is able to point us to where this breakthrough might come. It already knows that large numbers of pharmaceutical drugs can cause symptoms such as confusion, memory loss, amnesia, disorientation. These drug side effects are something that the conventional medical establishment are fully aware - but keeps absolutely silent about.

 

I have outlined on another website just some of this evidence that doctors know that pharmaceutical drugs can cause these symptoms of dementia, alongside just some of the scientific studies that have demonstrated the link.
 

The problem with this evidence is that it is not welcome to the medical establishment, not least people who have been engaged in the business of prescribing these drugs. For doctors, and other medical practitioners, it is difficult to admit that their medical treatment, used increasingly over the last 80 years, might be a major cause of the dementia epidemic. 

 

The conventional medical establishment would rather ignore the evidence - AND COME UP WITH YET ANOTHER DRUG TO COVER UP THE HARM CAUSED TO PATIENTS.

 

So Lecanemab is likely to be yet another dead-end drug. The 'wonder drug' will have little impact on the ever rising numbers of people who are suffering dementia. Nor will it provide any significant help to individual dementia patients. It may raise hopes and expectations. But ultimately it will dash them in a matter of a few years. If Lecanemab follows the same trajectory as other wonder drugs, when its side effects become fully known, it will be quietly dropped.

 

Remember - this is not the first time that new 'wonder' drugs have been advertised by conventional medicine, through the mainstream media. This link made similar claims for a drug called aducanumab! 

And here is another from 2015 - a drug called solanezumab.

 

And there have been many more, like these, going back over a decade.

April 2007. "Scientists 'reverse' memory loss".
June 2008. "Dual action Alzhemer's drug hope".
July 2008. "Praise for new Alzheimer's drug".
July 2008. "Alzheimer's drug 'halts' decline.
May 2009. "Drug Trials 'reverse' Alzheimers".

Postscript

The fate of other, previously heralded "Wonder Drugs" for other illnesses.

Just a selection! Can you spot any that have actually worked?

  

Acomplia. What happens to all the 'Wonder Drugs' and 'Miracle Cures' of conventional medicine? 

 

New Wonder Drug for Cancer (or is it really that good?)

 

Canakinumab. A New Wonder Drug! Promoted by the mainstream media

 

Multiple Sclerosis. Another miracle cure? Or another dangerous blind alley? 

 

AND SO IT CONTINUES................

 

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE. A new wonder drug for dementia? What is the truth behind the media hype?

There is news today 23 October 2019) of a new wonder drug that can treat Alzheimer's disease. It's called aducanumab. It has hit the headlines in BBC News ('First drug that can slow Alzheimer's dementia'), the Times ('Alzheimer's drug suggests our research billions were not for naught'), the Telegraph ('New drug that halts mental decline is 'best news for dementia in 25 years'), and no doubt the rest of the mainstream media too. You do not need to read all these accounts as they are all virtually identical. The source material will undoubtedly be a press release by the drug company, Biogen, which is seeking regulatory approval in the USA for this 'groundbreaking" drug.

The news will encourage, and raise the expectations, of millions of people who suffer from, or have loved one's who suffer from, dementia. The pharmaceutical industry has done it again! It has come up with yet another wonder drug that will transform our health! Or so they are led to  believe.

The truth is rather more uncertain than the media coverage, who as usual have meekly accepted what the drug company has told them, without investigating any of the downsides. So what is the truth about aducanumab? What is known about it that we are not supposed to know?

• In March 2015, Biogen presented 'positive interim results' of a study.
• In March 2019, just four years later, Biogen discontinued all trials into the drug.

Why was this? We are told that an "independent data monitoring committee advises aducanumab unlikely to meet primary endpoints", although we were also told that "the recommendation to stop the studies was not based on safety concerns". So what was it based on? Presumably it was found not to be effective!

But what about the safety of aducanumab? Conventional medicine frequently dismisses any safety concerns that are known about drugs, both old and new. This is the warning statement about aducanumab on the Drugs.com website.

               "Patients treated with adalimumab are at increased risk of infection, some of which may become serious and lead to hospitalization or death. These infections have included TB, invasive fungal infections, bacterial, viral, and those caused by opportunistic pathogens including Legionella and Listeria." (my emphasis).

For conventional medicine (and the Drugs.com website is owned by pharmaeutical interests) such safety concerns do not warrant any more than a warning, however drastic that warning might be! And, of course, the trials abandoned in March 2019 had nothing to do with 'safety' concerns! Instead, doctors are advised to take care about how the drug is used.

               "The risks and benefits of therapy should be carefully considered prior to treatment initiation in patients with chronic or recurrent infection. Evaluate for latent TB and treat if necessary prior to initiating therapy. Monitor patients closely for signs and symptoms of infection during and after treatment, including the possible development of TB in patients who tested negative prior to treatment. Consider empirical antifungal therapy in at-risk patients who develop severe systemic illness. Lymphoma and other malignancies, some fatal, have been reported in pediatric and adolescent patients treated with tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers such as adalimumab. Postmarketing cases of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL), usually fatal, have been reported in patients treated with TNF blockers including adalimumab, primarily in adolescent and young adult males with Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis." (my emphasis).


Clearly, the concept of 'first do not harm", and the precautionary principle" do not apply to conventional medical practice.

Nor does it appear to be a concern for the mainstream media. I did not have to struggle to find this informaton. It is not hidden. Nor is it information that comes from anywhere else but conventional medical literature. But the mainstream media does not bother to inform us. And the drug companies are, as sure as hell, will not do so!

What guides the BBC, the Telegraph, the Times, et al., is what drug companies want us to know; not what we need to know about these 'wonder drugs' before we begin to consume them.

This is not unusual. Whenever we face an epidemic of chronic disease, such as dementia, but also allergy, arthritis, autism, diabetes, and so many more, the first questions asked by the conventional medical establishment is "how can we respond?" "What treatments (usually what drug) do we have to combat this epidemic?"

The first question that should be asked, both by doctors and patients, is - "what has caused this epidemic?" Why are the numbers of older people, and even young adults and children, now suffering from dementia increasing so rapidly?"

Unfortunately it is a question that conventional medicine, and the drug companies that controls it, do not want us to ask. The cause of these epidemic levels of chronic disease are pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines - at least in large measure. They are certainly known to cause dementia, and although doctors know this (it's in their medical literature) they certainly do not want us to know!

Asking such a question does not fit in with the business plan of the pharmaceutical industry, which is to treat illness with drugs that cause other illnesses through side effects, and then treat these illnesses with other drugs, which also cause side effects............. and so on.

So investigating the CAUSE of Alzheimer's is not part of conventional medical strategy. Finding new, and every more harmful (and profitable) drugs to treat it, most certainly is! And our mainstream media is complicit in this.

Postscript (7th June 2021)

This awful drug, Aducanumab, has raised its ugly head again. 18 months after this free advertising of a nasty drug the mainstream media is at it again.

 

"US approves first new Alzheimer's drug in 20 years" is the BBC's headline. It is good, free advertising, although this time the BBC does mention the "uncertainty" about the drug trial results; but of course this  is not reflected in the headline.

And it's more than just 'uncertainty'. Members of the FDA (the USA drug regulator) have resigned "amid backlash over controversial drug approval". Even members of the pharmaceutical medical establishment will take action to prevent patient harm by such an approval. Perhaps all is not well within conventional medicine!

Janet. A patient getting to the end of the long journey through pain and painkilling drugs, ending up in chronic pain, Amitriptyline - and dementia?

I wrote in general terms of the "long journey through pain and painkilling drugs" in July. It is, of course, a very personal journey, and in recent days I have come face-to-face with two such journeys. This deals with the first one.

Janet (not her real name) is now in her early 70's, and she has suffered from arthritis for many years. She said that she is getting increasingly forgetful, often confused, and her once good memory has become poor. This came to a head recently when she was out, driving her car. She was not far from home but she suddenly realised she did not know where she was. She realised that she did not know how to get home. As you can imagine this frightened her. Was this dementia? What else could it be? It would only get worse. And she knew there was no treatment.

I asked her what drugs she was taking? This is now the first question I ask anyone when they say they are unwell! Amitriptyline came the reply. I groaned. She smiled, knowing what I was going to tell her. She did not believe in homeopathy, and she knew my views on pharmaceutical drugs. She was someone, like so many others, who has always had great confidence in her doctor. Well, it's scientific medicine, isn't it!

Amitriptyline is an antidepressant. It is usually used to treat depression, but is also used for pain when painkillers no longer work. She took it, in desperation, so that she was able to get some sleep at night. A few days later, I heard, the doctor had discontinued the Amitriptyline.

Over the years Janet has gone a long way down that long journey through pain and painkilling drugs. They are the only treatment for arthritis that conventional medicine has. They have no treatment that deals with the cause of arthritis, just the pain. Doctors state that there is no cure. So once diagnosed Janet was given painkilling drugs, many years ago now. These drugs dulled the pain, but did nothing for the condition itself. Painkilling drugs, all of them, are highly toxic. They cause side effects, some quite horrible disease-inducing effects. And as time goes on painkillers become less effective. They may take the edge of the pain, temporarily, but in time more drug, in greater potency, have to be taken. So the patient is regularly taking the drugs, and suffering not only from arthritis but from the toxicity of the drugs.

As the years went by the effectiveness of painkillers for Janet's pain subsided. Pain was constant, and she could not sleep. So her doctor has to look for something else, anything he had left in their medicine chest. Hence Amitriptyline - an antidepressant - for pain. As far as I know the drug has never been tested or approved for the treatment of pain, but doctors don't have much else to use once patients are in so much pain they cannot sleep. It must be depressing! So maybe this is the reason for prescribing it.

Anyone who wants to see what a dangerous and harmful drug Amitriptyline is should have a look at the known (and accepted) side effects. Go to this Drug.com webpage to read the full horror story! The list is too long to include here, but it includes blood in urine or stools, blurred vision, changes in patterns and rhythms of speech, chest pain, cold sweats, coma, continuing ringing, buzzing, or other unexplained noise in ears, convulsions, difficulty in breathing, passing urine and speaking, irregular heartbeat, general feeling of tiredness or weakness, headache, hearing loss, high fever, high or low blood pressure, inability to speak, lack of coordination, lethargy, loss of balance control, loss of bladder control, loss of consciousness, lower back or side pain, mental depression or anxiety, muscle spasm or jerking of all extremities, nausea and vomiting, nightmares, poor coordination, seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there, seizures, sleeplessness, stiffness of limbs, swollen glands,
trouble in speaking, sleeping, breathing, unsteadiness, trembling, or other problems with muscle control or coordination, unusual tiredness or weakness. And much, much more.

The mental side effects that Janet suffered were all there too, of course. She did not have dementia, she was suffering from the side effects of the drug her doctor had prescribed.

• change in consciousness
• confusion
• confusion about identity, place, and time
• disturbed concentration
• stupor
• sudden loss of consciousness

She took them because she trusted her doctor, and the 'scientific' medicine he administered! But for Densise, and probably many millions of people suffering from dementia, this is where decades of taking painkillers had led. Her 'long journey' had led to a diagnosis of dementia.

Pharmaceutical drugs DO cause dementia, and Alzheimer's disease - and it is not just painkillers that are cause this epidemic!

This is one of the reasons why dementia is now running at unprecedented levels. This is why young and middle age people are now being diagnosed with dementia in increasing numbers.

What will happen to Janet now? And lots of people like Janet? The pharmaceutical cupboard is desperately bare. It has never been very full of helpful drugs for treating pain. Perhaps her doctor will put it down to her age. After all, this is the main explanation doctors give for all the epidemics of chronic disease we are suffering. Certainly, conventional medicine is unlikely to admit that these epidemics have all been caused, to one degree or another, by the pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines they have been prescribing to us for decades.

Or perhaps she will now see through the mirage of conventional medicine, and look for more effective and safe treatment.

So I urge everyone, don't start on this long journey. See through the charm of doctors, the propaganda of drug companies, the idea that medical science is winning the battle against disease, and the silence of the mainstream media. Start looking at natural therapies, and try them, before it is too late.

The Dementia Epidemic. What is the cause?

There are a variety of pharmaceutical drugs that have the side effect "confusion", "memory loss", "decreased mental alertness" and other symptoms of dementia. There are less pharmaceutical drugs that admit to "dementia", or Alzheimer's Disease, as a side effect!

There are a whole host of websites that will confirm that drugs are a major cause of confusion and memory loss. I have listed some of these at the foot of this blog below. More to the point, a cursory perusal of the British National Formulary, or MIMS (medical bibles for doctors which provide details of known drug side effects) will indicate that many, if not most pharmaceutical drugs have these symptoms of dementia as side effects.

The question is, are these side effects just minor, temporary conditions, rather like some conditions we more normally associate as 'side effects' - a headache perhaps, or a dry mouth? Or do they constitute a longer term, more permanent threat to the brain? Can they so easily be dismissed?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I use the term "DIE's" for drug side effects - I think that this is a more accurate description. They are 'Disease Inducing Effects' and should not be discounted as either minor or temporary.

I have listed the scientific evidence that has linked dementia with a considerable number of pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, and these drugs include some of those most commonly taken drugs, especially those regular taken by older people. They include

• The flu vaccine (especially if taken over a period of successive years),
• Antidepressant drugs,
• Antipsychotic drugs,
• Statin drugs,
• Sleeping pills, particularly of the Benzodiazepine family,
• Anticholinergic drugs,
• Antihistamine drugs,
• Proton Pump Inhibitor drugs, such as Rennies and other popular brands,
• H2 Blocker drugs,
• Painkillers,
• and many others.

Many older people are prescribed a cocktail of different pharmaceutical drugs, and conventional doctors have little knowledge about what this type of polypharmacy can do to human health, leave alone to the human brain which is our most vulnerable organ.

Dementia is not just affecting older people. It now strikes people in their 50's and 60's, even some people in their 30's and 40's! It is estimated that 1 in 3 people will suffer from dementia, and that in future this might rise to 1 in 2. So something needs to be done, and we cannot wait for conventional medicine to be honest. So we need to take action to protect ourselves, and our loved ones. My suggestion is simplicity itself!

• Do not take pharmaceutical drugs, and do not accept vaccinations for flu or indeed any other condition.
• If and when you are ill look to other medical therapies for treatment. They are often more effective anyway, and they are certainly safer because they do not use toxic substances, such as mercury and aluminium, known to have harmful effects on the brain.
• Anyone who is taking pharmaceutical drugs, or have taken them in the past, should seek out assistance from a homeopath to antidote the toxicity that has been introduced into you body.

Conventional medicine is harming us, as individuals, and as a population. It is time for us all to say "No, no more. We have had enough!" And we should do so whilst we still have the mental capability of doing so.

Postscript. A selection of websites that discuss the link between pharmaceutical drugs and confusion, memory loss, etc

• https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2012/03/08/many-drugs-can-cause-confusion/ 
• https://www.webmd.com/brain/medications-that-can-cause-confusion-or-a-decreased-alertness 
• https://bebrainfit.com/20-medications-that-can-cause-memory-loss/ 
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3451468/Common-antibiotics-trigger-DELIRIUM-Drugs-cause-confusion-hallucinations-agitation-weeks-study-warns.html 
• https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-05-2013/drugs-that-may-cause-memory-loss.html#quest1 
• https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408593_5 
• https://womensbrainhealth.org/think-about-it/10-drugs-that-may-cause-memory-loss 
• https://www.caregivers.com/blog/2013/07/3-causes-confusion-in-the-elderly/ 
• https://www.healthline.com/symptom/confusion#modal-close 
• https://www.cancer.net/navigating-cancer-care/side-effects/mental-confusion-or-delirium 
• http://www.healthinaging.org/resources/resource:potentially-inappropriate-medication-use-in-older-adults/ 
• https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/whats-causing-your-memory-loss.htm 
• https://www.davidwolfe.com/medications-cause-memory-loss/ 

Alzheimers Disease. How doctors treat people with Dementia

Regular readers of this blog will be aware that I believe that Alzheimers, and other forms of dementia, are caused by pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines. Those drugs implicated include many vaccines, including the flu vaccine, Antidepressant and Antipsychotic drugs, Statins, PPI's, Benzodiazepines, Antihistamines, Anticholinergic drugs, H2 blockers, and many others. They are listed, and the evidence described on this website. Indeed, when you look at the known side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, most of them list 'confusion'.

So once conventional medicine has caused a disease, how does it then treat it? They use more pharmaceutical drugs, including drugs known to cause dementia - Antipsychotics. These have been known as the 'chemical cosh' - drugs that do not treat the illness but which keep people with dementia calm - manageable.

New evidence, revealed in UK's doctors e-magazine, Pulse on 15th December 2017, has estimated that nearly 43,000 dementia patients were prescribed antipsychotic drugs during a a six week period during the autumn. This represents 9.4% of the 458,461 on the dementia register in England. The research, undertaken by NHS Digital, also recorded the number of patients who did not have psychosis but were prescribed the drug, but the information was only available 'on request'.

So the chemical cosh is alive and well, and being used with our older friends and relatives throughout the land. Antipsychotic drugs do not treat Alzheimers, and doctors do not pretend that they do. One doctor says so, in a comment on the Pulse article.

               "Apart from Risperidone, which has a 6 week licence for BPSD in Alzheimer's type dementia all other drugs are OFF label."

It is fair to say that some other doctors recognise that prescribing antipsychotic drugs "is a bad thing because these drugs are being overprescribed in place of hands on care" and that "there is also robust evidence that antipyschotics can increase morbidity and mortality". Yet the figures show that doctors are still prescribing them, and it is clear in other comments that some doctors seek to defend their use with Alzheimer's patients.

               "Is this really such a bad thing? These drugs have been unfairly demonised by NICE because of their risks but the reality is that those with advanced dementia have palliative needs that we are simply not recognising. It can't be very nice to be chronically agitated, shouting, wandering around at night and lacking a sleep wake cycle. Its often unsafe and distressing for patients, fellow residents and also carers. Even the best EMI homes struggle with all this and many are sub-par. The reality is that low dose antipsychotics are often effective for a wide range of these symptoms. Evidence for other 'trendy' behaviour based intervention is woolly at best. Perhaps it's time to recognise the terminal nature of dementia and relax the dogma around the use of antipsychotics antil something better comes along?"

The reference to 'other trendy behaviour' is pertinent. Conventional medicine has no effective treatment for dementia. The pharmaceutical industry is coming up with several extraordinarily expensive drugs, for which the 'evidence' is certainly 'wooly', to say the least. But to say that doctors should 'recognise the terminal nature of dementia' misses one important consideration - that there are other alternative therapies, including homeopathy, that can treat dementia. These are neither 'wooly', nor do they resign themselves to dementia being 'terminal'.

The unfortunate fact is the people with dementia, a disease now being contracted by many younger people, cannot choose their treatment. And their carers too often accept what doctors tell them, that it is a terminal disease, and there is no treatment. The result is that very few dementia patients are ever offered homeopathic treatment, and very few have been treated with homeopathy. I outlined a number of homeopathic remedies that are known to treat the symptoms of dementia.

So Alzheimer's Disease, and dementia generally, should represent a perfect opportunity for conventional doctors. They are only too aware that they have no effective treatment, and most recognise that antipsychotic drugs do more harm than good to their patients. So why not try homeopathy? How effective are the remedies that I outlined in my 'Why Homeopathy?' website? Many will dismiss the suggestion, out of hand, saying that 'there is no evidence'. Yet there is no evidence for the use of antipsychotic drugs in dementia, but they clearly use them!

If it wanted to do so, the NHS could discuss the use of homeopathy in the treatment of dementia, and set up a pilot study. It won't do so. Indeed, it is doing the very opposite, currently seeking to stop all expenditure on homeopathic treatment!

It would appear that dementia is another one of those illnesses that the conventional medical establishment would rather patients DIE than be offered more effective, safer alternative medical treatment!

Dementia, Alzheimers. Hopes raised, hopes dashed.

Solanezumab was to be a great breakthrough drug, the first to effectively treat the growing scourge of dementia, and in particular, Alzheimer's disease. Of course it has proven to be no such thing. But the history of the drug demonstrates the machinations of the pharmaceutical industry, the willingness of medical charities, patient support groups, and the mainstream media to sing, loudly and in tune, with the drug companies hymn sheet. It also demonstrates how patients are misinformed about the nature of their disease (dementia, et al), how they have their hopes raised about 'great scientific advances' in medical treatment, only to have them totally dashed.

It also demonstrates the need for a new approach to dealing with the many epidemics of disease we have been facing over the last half century and more. There is hope, but it does not exist in a packet of pharmaceutical drugs!

The rise of dementia, and in particular Alzheimer's disease, has been staggering. The Alzheimer's Society published a major study on the social and economic impact of dementia in the UK in February 2007, and again in November 2014. They provided the most detailed information about the prevalence and impact of dementia in the UK. The 2014 findings showed that 1 in 79 of the entire UK population, and 1 in 14 of the population aged over 65 years, has dementia. They estimated that there would be 850,000 people with dementia in the UK in 2015 (In 2007 report the estimate was 700,000). The total number of people with dementia in the UK was forecasted to increase to over 1 million by 2025, and over 2 million by 2051.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics reports that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease has now replaced heart diseases as the leading cause of death in England and Wales, accounting for 11.6% of all deaths registered in 2015. Similar figures can be found for the rise of Alzheimer's disease in most other western countries. The projected number of people expected to be suffering with Alzheimer’s by 2050 is 100 million worldwide.

The disease was first described in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer. Even so, after 110 years, conventional medicine still does not know why we are facing such an epidemic. For instance, when talking about the causes of Alzheimer's disease the NHS Choices website (the voice of conventional medicine in Britain) can describe what happens to the brain, but states that "It's not known exactly what causes this process to begin." As far as treatment for dementia is concerned they state simply that "there's currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease."

This is why hopes and expectations were raised when the drug company, Eli Lili, announced that they were developing a drug called Solanezumab. It was patented in 2002. Millions of dollars were spent on developing it, based on potential sales should the drug prove to be effective and safe. The hype that followed seemed to indicate confidence in the drug, certainly according to the mainstream media, which as usual was prepared to publicise the optimism, and raise the hope of sufferers and their carers. BBC News, as usual, led the way.

           "The first details of how a drug could slow the pace of brain decline for patients with early stage Alzheimer's disease have emerged. Data from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly suggests its solanezumab drug can cut the rate of the dementia's progression by about a third.... A new trial is due to report next year and should provide definitive evidence. The death of brain cells in Alzheimer's is currently unstoppable. Solanezumab may be able to keep them alive.... solanezumab attacks the deformed proteins, called amyloid, that build up in the brain during Alzheimer's. It is thought the formation of sticky plaques of amyloid between nerve cells leads to damage and eventually brain cell death."

This kind of pharmaceutical hype is usually meekly parroted by the mainstream media. Our news media, largely funded by pharmaceutical advertising, even the BBC which is not funded in this way, can alway be counted on to promote any new pharmaceutical drug! Health charities and patient support groups do exactly the same. Solanezumab was promoted by the Alzheimers Society, which is also largely funded by donations from Big Pharma companies. The drug worked. And, the hype emphasised, it had no side effects. Another wonder drug was about to come to our aid! Yet what, exactly, were they getting excited about. According to Wikipedia, not very much!

          "Solanezumab was tested in two phase 3 clinical trials ..... oth were randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. Patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease received either placebo or ... solanezumab infusions every 4 weeks over 18 months. A total of 1012 patients participated in (one trial, the second) enrolled another 1040 patients. Both studies were not able to show a difference in cognition and memory between the treated and the placebo group. (My emphasis).  However, a subgroup analysis of only patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease showed less worsening of cognition in patients receiving solanezumab compared to placebo, which means the progression of the disease was slowed down. There was no effect on disease progression in patients with moderate symptoms."

This does not sound much to get excited about! Nor does it appear to justify raising the hopes and expectations of dementia sufferers throughout the world. But the hype was all good advertising, entirely free, for the drug companies. Through it they could demonstrate that medical science was winning the battle against disease! And it encourages thousands of people to run, walk, cycle, swim, and generally to achieve great things, all in the name of some medical charity, to help fund this kind of research.

Yet all pharmaceutical drugs usually work on these small, marginal, limited benefits, suitably hyped of course! And on this basis a third trial into solanezumab was financed.

          "Since the first two ... trials show a positive effect in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease, Lilly launched another phase 3 trial ... Patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease received ... solanezumab every 4 weeks for 80 weeks.... This trial failed to show positive results, despite the high expectations."

The BBC, via this article by Fergus Walsh, a particularly enthusiastic promoter of pharmaceutical drugs, were apologetic.

          "A major trial of a drug to treat mild dementia due to Alzheimer's disease has ended in failure.
Patients on solanezumab did not show any slowing in cognitive decline compared to those treated with a placebo, or dummy drug. The results of the trial were much anticipated after promising data was released last year. The phase 3 trial ..... involved more than 2,000 patients with Alzheimer's disease. The drug targeted the build up of amyloid protein, which forms sticky plaques in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's. It is thought the formation of these plaques between nerve cells, known as neurons, leads to damage and eventually brain cell death."

The Alzheimer's Society, likewise, expressed their disappointment, and commented that 'promising therapies' do sometimes fail at this stage "but this is particularly disheartening given that a similar treatment, Bapinezeumab, also recently fell at the last hurdle". It continued with its message of hope, urging us on, consoling us with the thought that there are 150 times more clinical trials focusing on treating people in the late stages of cancer than Alzheimer's disease.

          "Further investment in trials is urgently needed to identify effective therapies to improve the lives of the 800,000 people in the UK currently living with dementia."

It is the usual story. The birth, childhood, adulthood, old age, and death of new pharmaceutical drugs that I have described elsewhere. Except, perhaps, that this drug was still-born, and so we are still waiting, or perhaps will never discover, its full disease inducing side effects!

What has not been said, because it is never openly admitted by the conventional medical establishment, is that one major cause of dementia, and the explosion of Alzheimer's disease in particular, has been pharmaceutical drugs taken by patients for other medical reasons. The evidence is there, in plenty, for anyone to see. Many drugs and vaccines cause dementia, not just a few. Any vaccine that contains mercury (thimerosal) or aluminium (most do), the flu jab, in particular, antidepressants drugs, antipsychotic drugs, Benzodiazepine and other sleeping drugs, anticholinergic drugs, antihistamine drugs, proton pump drugs, and Statin drugs.

So one way we can avoid dementia, and so discard the need to develop dementia drugs, is to stop taking pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines that cause it, and instead look for a safer, more effective medical therapy, such as homeopathy. And for those who are already suffering from the condition, the Natural Health website article, 'Muteness on B vitamins and lifestyle after Pharma's Alzheimer's flop'  suggests a simple a straightforward treatment. It is based on diet, in particular vitamin B, exercise, and other lifestyle factors. For anyone with early dementia, or their carers, this treatment is readily available, and I recommend you read the article, and follow the regimen involved.

Medical fundamentalists, who hate any other kind of medical treatment other than pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, will ridicule such advice. To which the simple response is - tell me what conventional, drug-based medicine has to offer as an alternative. The response will be a deafening silence! The trouble is there is no cost to patients, and therefore no profit for the pharmaceutical companies, in such a treatment!

Curing Alzheimer's

BBC 2's  Horizon programme, "Curing Alzheimer's", broadcast on 11th May 2016 ,is typical of the kind of propaganda our 'public broadcaster' is prepared to put out on behalf of the Pharmaceutical industry, and the conventional medical establishment. Goodness knows how much the advertisement would have cost had the BBC charged the going rates!

Broadly, the news was that conventional medicine was on the verge of overcoming 'the scourge of Alzheimer's disease! These are some of the comments made in the programme.

• The latest generation of research has unleashed a new front in the war against this devastating disease.
• There is a new window of opportunity opening up.
• New technology allows us to see the signs of Alzheimer’s earlier than we ever could before.
• A series of drug trials have been launched across the world, drugs that are targeting the disease in its early stage. 
• We believe that this (drug) trial works the dawn of a new era in early Alzheimer’s prevention research.
• The initial results (of the drugs trials) are exciting. They reveal that there are drugs that are reducing signs of the disease.
• Scientists are confident that a cure is tantalisingly close.
• If we treat early enough we may stave off Alzheimer’s disease completely, and we may never have to worry about it again

So Horizon asked the question "can we end the curse of Alzheimer’s forever?", and never seriously questioned what the medical scientists were telling them. However, the programme did give some accurate information about Alzheimer's disease itself.

• About every 4 minutes someone new is told they have the disease. 
• The panic grows, as the epidemic sweeps across the globe.
• Alzheimer’s is now one of the most feared medical conditions.

The programme achieved two things. One, already mentioned in the programme itself, is that the share price of the drug companies involved have increased enormously. This programme will probably ensure that there is another such increase. The prospect of pharmaceutical profits always does that, not least when the BBC promotes it, unquestioningly, for an hour!

The other is that it will raise the hopes and expectations of millions of sufferers of the disease, and those who believe that they might suffer from the disease in future. There is a prospect of cure! The new drugs will be available in 4 years time! In 10 years time the disease might be under control! We might never have to worry about Alzheimer's disease again!

Indeed, the programme featured a number of people and families who were thinking just that, it might benefit them, and this added a human element to 'the good news' story. Conventional medicine, we were told, was coming to the aid of these unfortunate dementia sufferers, and many like them.

So let's stand back and examine this 'good news'.

Pharmaceutical drugs are firmly implicated in the creations of the dementia epidemic that is now sweeping the world. I have written about this in my website, DIEs, where the long list of drugs that are now known to cause dementia are listed. Even the BBC published the evidence that anticholinergic drugs caused Alzheimers on 27th January 2015! I wrote about it in my blog, "Big Pharma drugs cause Dementia, Alzheimers". So it is, perhaps, another case of the poacher turning gamekeeper, not an unfamiliar situation for the pharmaceutical industry, who base much of their profitability on their ability to offer drugs for disease they have, in large measure, caused!

Yet this Horizon programme does not even mention pharmaceutical drugs as a causative factor of Alzheimer's disease. The only reason given for the dementia epidemic is genetics - people from families with a genetic disposition are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. This may be so, but if it is the only cause, in order to account for the worldwide epidemic it must mean that a small proportion of people have given rise to a disproportionate increase in the incidence of dementia!

Other factors, both in regards of prevention and treatment, were mentioned.

• The role of deep sleep.
• Diet and nutrition, and it’s affect on the brain.
• Brain training, through cognitive exercises

Yet, according Horizon, it was pharmaceutical drugs that were going to be the saviour of mankind from this dreadful disease! It was to be more miracle drugs that are going to transform our lives - of course!

We have been here so often before. I remember so many similar programmes, on the BBC and other channels, and in medical journals, promising wonder drugs, miracle cures, magic bullets, that were going to transform our lives. How long have we been promised cures for a whole range of conditions, ranging from pain to cancer, from depression to , epilepsy, from diabetes to the common cold; indeed, for any disease you might want to mention!

They have, of course, never materialised! Indeed, through their side effects they have made matters worse. Indeed, it is the pharmaceutical drugs used for other conditions that has led to the dramatic increase we have witnessed in dementia over the last 50 years or so.

The programme did, eventually mention that one of the drugs caused a serious side effect, that whilst getting rid of certain signs of dementia in the brain, it caused the brain to swell! We must, I suppose, be thankful for this modicum of honesty from the BBC! Yet, if past drugs are anything to go by, the real side effects of the new drugs will not be known about until many patients have been damaged by them, and the Big Pharma companies have made their enormous, multi-billion pound profit!

This BBC programme is part of the strategic plan of the conventional medical establishment, and in particular, the pharmaceutical industry. No matter how ineffective or dangerous their drugs and vaccines might be, it is important for them to continue selling the myth - that disease is being overcome, that medical science is triumphantly winning its fight with disease, and will ultimately overcome the human misery it causes.

So all pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines are introduced in this same way, not least by the BBC. Go back, and re-read the comments made in the programme, stated at the start of this blog. Do you believe they are likely to come true? Are the claims credible? The BBC obviously thinks so, which is perhaps the triumph of hope over experience!

Can I know, for certain, that these new drugs will not do exactly what is being claimed for them? No, of course not. But the best predictor of the future is past performance. And pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines, all the magic bullets and wonder cures we have been promised in the past, have a record of abject failure. None of them have done what they were supposed to do. Most of them have caused side effects, or DIEs (disease inducing effects), worse than the condition for which they were originally prescribed.

That is why we now face epidemic levels of a whole series of disease, Alzheimer's disease being one of the most prominent.

Therefore, I rest my case, and will allow the next 10 years to determine whether the BBC, the Horizon programme, and medical science are right. Or not right. But for those people now living in the hope of a conventional medical cure, think hard. There has never been one before! There are solutions to the dementia epidemic, the most important of which is probably to avoid taking the pharmaceutical drugs that are known to cause it. And, for anyone suffering from dementia, homeopathy might be helpful too.

The BBCs coverage of health issues cannot be relied upon. For whatever reason, best known to themselves, our 'public broadcaster' is totally subservient to the conventional medical establishment, and to the pharmaceutical industry. They only tell the public what conventional medicine wants us to hear. And they attack anyone with a different view.