Are We There Yet? vol. 231
Dr. Ali Rezai is an Iranian-born American neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. He first came to fame in the early part of this century with a revolutionary treatment to stop uncontrollable tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease. That treatment is now a standard procedure for Parkinson’s patients.
As reported on 60 Minutes, he heads the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, where he is focused on using ultrasound to help treat Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Dan Miller was exhibiting Alzheimer’s symptoms, and brain scans showed significant plaque buildup, a marker of Alzheimer’s. An issue for treatment has been that drug treatments could not penetrate the blood-brain barrier to attack the affected areas. Dr. Rezai used focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier for a day or two, allowing the drugs to get through. Scans of Mr. Miller’s brain after the treatment showed a remarkable decrease in the plaque and Mr. Miller’s symptoms have stabilized which would not have been the case without the treatment.
Dr. Rezai also has applied the focused ultrasound treatment against another disease—addiction. Gerod Buckhalter was a star high school athlete who became hooked on opioids after an injury. Fifteen years later, he was considered to be an end stage drug user. The end stage being death. In Burkhalter’s case, implants were placed into the reward center in his brain to suppress the cravings that caused his addiction. He hasn’t used or had the urge to use drugs in the four years since the treatment.
But Dr. Rezai was concerned about the risks of operating on the brain and looked at using the focused ultrasound to do the same thing as the implants. According to Dr. Rezai “Ultrasound energy is changing the electrical and chemical mileau, or activity, in this structure in the brain involving addiction and cravings.” The treatment takes about an hour and patients are walking away no longer having any cravings for drugs.
When asked about the risk of moving too quickly, he replied “There’s always risk, but you cannot advance and make discoveries without risk.” If we all think about our biggest successes personally and professionally, I suspect many of them involved risk-taking. The key is to do your homework so that you know the risk involved.
Take care and stay safe.
BOOK:
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place at the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. King Arthur died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.
The survivors aren’t the heroes of legend like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight, and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill.Learn more about Bob Len here.
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