A new hope for Alzheimer's

Plus more health news | Email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser.]( [Health Matters]( [A new drug shows promise for Alzheimer's]( By Alice Park Senior Health Correspondent Reporting on Alzheimer’s disease over past few decades has been both rewarding and heartbreaking. Hope for new treatments is often followed by disappointment when drugs don’t help patients as much as experts had hoped. But the latest glimmer of hope is getting major headlines today. The Japanese company Eisai reported at a conference last night that its drug lecanemab helped people with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease slow their cognitive decline by 27% compared to people who took a placebo. Even better, the effect increased over time. It's not an enormous improvement, but it's better than anything currently available. Here are the three most important things to know: - Lecanemab works by targeting amyloid, a protein that builds up in the brain during Alzheimer’s and eventually damages neurons. Other amyloid-based drugs—including the only approved treatment for the disease, aducanumab (or Aduhelm)—haven't been very effective. At the same conference, Roche reported that its anti-amyloid compound did not reduce amyloid enough to slow down progression of Alzheimer’s to a significant extent. - The drug comes with potential side effects, including inflammation in the brain and bleeding for those also taking anticoagulant drugs. Doctors say the inflammation is manageable if patients are monitored carefully and that the bleeding risk needs further study. - Eisai has filed for accelerated approval of the drug, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make a decision by early January. [READ THE STORY.]( Share the story What else to read [Many Asthma Patients Don’t Follow Their Medication Plans. Here’s How to Change That]( By Markham Heid A look at the latest measures to improve adherence, including new technologies and refinements to provider-patient interactions. [Read More »]( [How Israel Became the Global Center For Alternative Meat Tech]( By Aryn Baker / Tel Aviv, Israel Israel has become the center of lab-grown meat and alternative protein technologies, thanks to its geopolitics, climate, and culture. [Read More »]( [How the Pandemic Affected U.S. Birth Rates—and What Comes Next]( By Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip Levine At first there was a bust, then there was a boom, and now U.S. birth rates are back on their long-term, downward trend. [Read More »]( [Air Pollution Is Linked to Stillbirths—Especially in Poorer Countries]( By Jeffrey Kluger A new study finds a connection between fine-particle air pollution and the rate of stillbirths in low- and middle-income countries. [Read More »]( [Why Zumba Is Insanely Good Exercise]( By Markham Heid It's a party and a workout. (Originally published in 2017.) [Read More »]( One Last Read [The Dark Side of Hospice]( In theory, hospice care is unquestionably a good thing for society: dying with dignity, in as much comfort as possible, and with the ability to spend meaningful time with loved ones in one’s own home is surely better than languishing in the clinical setting of a hospital bed. But, as Ava Kofman writes in this deeply reported New Yorker story, it has become yet another part of the U.S. health care system that profiteers are exploiting for their own gain, with disregard to the patients (and their families) it was designed to help. [Read More »]( --------------------------------------------------------------- If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, [click here](. Today's newsletter was written by Alice Park and Elijah Wolfson and edited by Mandy Oaklander. [Want more from TIME? Sign up for our other newsletters.]( [Subscribe to TIME]( TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services in this email. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Connect with TIME via [Facebook]( | [Twitter]( | [Newsletters]( [UNSUBSCRIBE]( [PRIVACY POLICY]( [YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS]( TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508, Boone, IA 50037-0508 Questions? Contact health@time.com Copyright © 2022 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved.