Health

AI tool gives doctors personalized Alzheimer’s treatment plans for dementia patients

Published

2 years ago

May 8, 2023

AI tool gives doctors personalized Alzheimer’s treatment plans for dementia patients

Greater than six million People live with Alzheimer’s illness — and one in three seniors dies with the illness, in keeping with statistics from the Alzheimer’s Affiliation.

With so many various components — genetics, life-style and atmosphere — influencing an individual’s danger of creating Alzheimer’s, many docs are transferring away from one-size-fits-all approaches and calling for extra individualized therapies.

It’s an idea generally known as precision medication. And it’s what impressed an organization known as uMETHOD to create RestoreU, a instrument that makes use of synthetic intelligence to assist physicians create personalised care plans for sufferers with Alzheimer’s and different varieties of dementia.

IN ALZHEIMER’S STUDY, SLEEPING PILLS ARE SHOWN TO REDUCE SIGNS OF DISEASE IN THE BRAIN

“Dementia is what’s known as a posh illness,” CEO Vik Chandra, co-founder and CEO of uMETHOD Well being in Cary, North Carolina, stated in an interview with Fox Information Digital.

“Meaning there are a number of underlying causes that finally lead a affected person to develop dementia over time.”

Many of those 50+ causes can truly be handled with out there drugs and interventions, he stated. However as a result of docs are solely spending on common about eight minutes with every affected person, they typically don’t have sufficient time to broadly assess the affected person and handle the treatable causes.

Greater than six million People live with Alzheimer’s and one in three seniors dies with the illness, in keeping with the Alzheimer’s Affiliation. (iStock)

The RestoreU system acts as a form of assistant to the physician, Chandra stated.

“Its job is to not assist the physician diagnose the affected person, however to assist the physician assess the treatable causes after which put the affected person on the proper therapy,” he defined.

“It’s actually about enhancing the care,” he added. “It isn’t about seeing how far alongside they is likely to be or whether or not they have dementia — it is what to do to assist that affected person’s cognitive well being.”

“After we’re coping with human well being, with the lives of individuals, making incorrect suggestions or making errors is solely not acceptable.”

The RestoreU AI instrument is best for sufferers who’re beginning to discover gentle cognitive impairment and are within the early phases of dementia, Chandra instructed Fox Information Digital.

“The information exhibits us that about 10% of the inhabitants over 65 years previous — or a bit of over six million folks — have dementia, and one other 20% or so have gentle cognitive impairment,” he stated.

The way it works

By means of a partnership with Quest Diagnostics, uMETHOD has rolled out its AI service to physicians, who can order the service by way of the affected person’s digital well being file.

As soon as the doctor orders the service, it triggers the trade of intensive data between the physician’s digital well being file techniques and Quest Diagnostics, Chandra defined.

ALZHEIMER’S DIAGNOSES EXPECTED TO REACH NEARLY 13 MILLION BY 2050, SAYS NEW REPORT

“It gives the physician with a wealth of knowledge on the underlying causes of cognitive decline, whether or not it is drugs, beta amyloid, thyroid, B12 or life-style points like sleep,” he stated.

Subsequent, RestoreU gives a report back to the physician on deal with the affected person, together with including or altering drugs.

The physician will get a full plan that she or he can use to “determine on the course of take care of the person affected person,” Chandra stated. “Every part is personalised to the wants of that specific affected person.”

Traditionally, medical care has relied on common tips that may be exhausting to customise to the nuances of every affected person, the physician stated. (iStock)

The affected person’s privateness is protected all through all the course of, he famous.

“We run our infrastructure in a HIPAA-compliant method that maintains the safety and integrity of the affected person knowledge,” Chandra stated.

AI might have ‘huge potential’ for Alzheimer’s

Mark Dredze, affiliate professor of laptop science at Johns Hopkins College in Baltimore, Maryland, is a giant proponent of the usage of AI in treating dementia sufferers.

“Care of sufferers with cognitive decline is particularly advanced and requires integrating a number of sources of knowledge right into a single care plan,” he instructed Fox Information Digital.

“AI has the potential to combine various varieties of affected person knowledge into an actionable therapy plan.”

Traditionally, medical care has relied on common tips that may be exhausting to customise to the nuances of every affected person, he defined.

“AI has the potential to combine various varieties of affected person knowledge into an actionable therapy plan.”

“The potential for synthetic intelligence in medication is big, as it will probably mix many various kinds of data into a personalised plan for every affected person,” Dredze added.

On the identical time, nonetheless, he emphasised the significance of understanding the biases and dangers of those applied sciences in order that they increase the extent of take care of all sufferers.

The AI instrument in motion

Dr. Ashish Sachdeva, an inner medication doctor in Peoria, Arizona, who has been utilizing the RestoreU AI instrument for his sufferers for the previous 5 years, calls it a “no-brainer” for any major care physician.

“It units a benchmark and a lifelong plan of take care of wholesome dwelling,” he instructed Fox Information Digital. “With insights from the report, physicians could establish probably reversible causes of cognitive decline, comparable to remedy unintended effects or hormonal imbalances, that mimic dementia.”

“AI has the potential to craft exact therapy suggestions, permitting docs to personalize take care of every affected person,” one skilled instructed Fox Information Digital. (iStock)

“The knowledge might also assist establish measures to probably gradual or, if doable, halt dementia illness development,” Sachdeva added.

The instrument offers the physician a complete plan with lab reviews, social historical past, pharmacological historical past, psychological historical past and recommendation for life-style adjustments, together with eating regimen, sleep, train and stress administration.

“It’s all the things a major care physician ought to be doing anyway, nevertheless it’s all laid out on a platter,” Sachdeva stated.

EARLY ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE COULD BE DIAGNOSED THROUGH EYE EXAMS, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS

A key benefit of cognitive AI instruments is their skill to establish danger components early, he stated.

“If you wish to make a kicka– 90-year-old, the method ought to begin at 50,” Sachdeva instructed Fox Information Digital.

“This report helps you establish danger components and contemplate life-style adjustments, pharmacological adjustments, supplementation and different actions that may assist obtain that aim.”

‘There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer’

Apart from similar twins, no two people are alike, Chandra stated. That’s why he believes within the energy of precision medication, which entails concentrating on therapies to the particular wants of a selected affected person.

By means of a partnership with Quest Diagnostics, uMETHOD has rolled out its AI service to physicians, who can order the service by way of the affected person’s digital well being file. (iStock)

“The underlying causes of what results in a affected person’s persistent illness, comparable to cognitive decline, fluctuate considerably from one affected person to a different,” he stated.

Among the many 10,000 sufferers whom the AI instrument has served to this point, 52% of them have a number of causes of cognitive decline — they usually fluctuate from one individual to a different, Chandra stated.

ALZHEIMER’S DIAGNOSES EXPECTED TO REACH NEARLY 13 MILLION BY 2050, SAYS NEW REPORT

“The therapy and interventions ought to be very particular to that specific affected person, addressing the true causes that exist in that particular person,” he stated. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer.”

Along with enhancing affected person outcomes, Chandra believes that precision medication additionally will considerably scale back the prices of care, because the affected person gained’t be placed on costly drugs and coverings that in the end don’t work for them.

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However with that precision comes a sure duty, the physician stated.

With tons of of various AI algorithms, it’s vital to know how the techniques are reaching their conclusions.

One of many key benefits of cognitive AI instruments is their skill to establish danger components early, one physician stated. (iStock)

“The lessons of algorithms that uMETHOD applies are at all times of the character that may justify why they got here to a selected set of conclusions, why they made a selected set of therapy suggestions,” he stated.

“After we’re coping with human well being, with the lives of individuals, making incorrect suggestions or making errors is solely not acceptable.”

“Now we have been very, very cautious in deciding on the suitable set of algorithms in order that physicians can more and more depend on our options to ship the most effective care to these sufferers,” he added.

Sooner or later, Chandra stated uMETHOD goals to roll out options that focus extra on prevention, with the aim of pinpointing early indicators earlier than sufferers wind up within the dementia stage.

Melissa Rudy is well being editor and a member of the approach to life crew at Fox Information Digital.

Health

Jennifer Hudson Lost 80-Lbs Without Depriving Herself—Learn Her Secrets

Published

3 hours ago

January 18, 2025

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Jennifer Hudson Lost 80-Lbs Without Depriving Herself—Learn Her Secrets

Jennifer Hudson’s Weight Loss: How She Shed 80-Lbs Naturally | Woman’s World

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Health

Kennedy’s Plan for the Drug Crisis: A Network of ‘Healing Farms’

Published

11 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Kennedy’s Plan for the Drug Crisis: A Network of ‘Healing Farms’

Though Mr. Kennedy’s embrace of recovery farms may be novel, the concept stretches back almost a century. In 1935, the government opened the United States Narcotic Farm in Lexington, Ky., to research and treat addiction. Over the years, residents included Chet Baker and William S. Burroughs (who portrayed the institution in his novel, “Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict”). The program had high relapse rates and was tainted by drug experiments on human subjects. By 1975, as local treatment centers began to proliferate around the country, the program closed.

In America, therapeutic communities for addiction treatment became popular in the 1960s and ’70s. Some, like Synanon, became notorious for cultlike, abusive environments. There are now perhaps 3,000 worldwide, researchers estimate, including one that Mr. Kennedy has also praised — San Patrignano, an Italian program whose centerpiece is a highly regarded bakery, staffed by residents.

“If we do go down the road of large government-funded therapeutic communities, I’d want to see some oversight to ensure they live up to modern standards,” said Dr. Sabet, who is now president of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions. “We should get rid of the false dichotomy, too, between these approaches and medications, since we know they can work together for some people.”

Should Mr. Kennedy be confirmed, his authority to establish healing farms would be uncertain. Building federal treatment farms in “depressed rural areas,” as he said in his documentary, presumably on public land, would hit political and legal roadblocks. Fully legalizing and taxing cannabis to pay for the farms would require congressional action.

In the concluding moments of the documentary, Mr. Kennedy invoked Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist whose views on spirituality influenced Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Jung, he said, felt that “people who believed in God got better faster and that their recovery was more durable and enduring than people who didn’t.”

Health

Children exposed to higher fluoride levels found to have lower IQs, study reveals

Published

12 hours ago

January 18, 2025

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Children exposed to higher fluoride levels found to have lower IQs, study reveals

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The debate about the benefits and risks of fluoride is ongoing, as RFK Jr. — incoming President Trump’s pick for HHS secretary — pushes to remove it from the U.S. water supply.

“Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders and thyroid disease,” RFK wrote in a post on X in November.

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics on Jan. 6 found another correlation between fluoride exposure and children’s IQs.

RFK JR. CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF FLUORIDE FROM DRINKING WATER, SPARKING DEBATE

Study co-author Kyla Taylor, PhD, who is based in North Carolina, noted that fluoridated water has been used “for decades” to reduce dental cavities and improve oral health.

Fluoride exposure has been linked to a variety of negative health effects, yet benefits oral health. (iStock)

“However, there is concern that pregnant women and children are getting fluoride from many sources, including drinking water, water-added foods and beverages, teas, toothpaste, floss and mouthwash, and that their total fluoride exposure is too high and may affect fetal, infant and child neurodevelopment,” she told Fox News Digital.

The new research, led by scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), analyzed 74 epidemiological studies on children’s IQ and fluoride exposure.

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS EPA FURTHER REGULATE FLUORIDE IN DRINKING WATER DUE TO CONCERNS OVER LOWERED IQ IN KIDS

The studies measured fluoride in drinking water and urine across 10 countries, including Canada, China, Denmark, India, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan. (None were conducted in the U.S.)

The meta-analysis found a “statistically significant association” between higher fluoride exposure and lower children’s IQ scores, according to Taylor.

“[It showed] that the more fluoride a child is exposed to, the more likely that child’s IQ will be lower than if they were not exposed,” she said.

Scientists found a “statistically significant association” between higher fluoride exposure and lower children’s IQ scores. (iStock)

These results were consistent with six previous meta-analyses, all of which reported the same “statistically significant inverse associations” between fluoride exposure and children’s IQs, Taylor emphasized.

The research found that for every 1mg/L increase in urinary fluoride, there was a 1.63-point decrease in IQ.

‘Safe’ exposure levels

The World Health Organization (WHO) has established 1.5mg/L as the “upper safe limit” of fluoride in drinking water.

“There is concern that pregnant women and children are getting fluoride from many sources.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Public Health Service recommends a fluoride concentration of 0.7 mg/L in drinking water.

“There was not enough data to determine if 0.7 mg/L of fluoride exposure in drinking water affected children’s IQs,” Taylor noted.

FDA BANS RED FOOD DYE DUE TO POTENTIAL CANCER RISK

Higher levels of the chemical can be found in wells and community water serving nearly three million people in the U.S., the researcher noted.

She encouraged pregnant women and parents of small children to be mindful of their total fluoride intake.

little boy filling fresh water from water tap in sports bottle

Nearly three million people have access to wells and community water with fluoride levels above the levels suggested by the World Health Organization. (iStock)

“If their water is fluoridated, they may wish to replace tap water with low-fluoride bottled water, like purified water, and limit exposure from other sources, such as dental products or black tea,” she said.

“Parents can use low-fluoride bottled water to mix with powdered infant formula and limit use of fluoridated toothpaste by young children.”

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While the research did not intend to address broader public health implications of water fluoridation in the U.S., Taylor suggested that the findings could help inform future research into the impact of fluoride on children’s health.

Dental health expert shares cautions

In response to this study and other previous research, Dr. Ellie Phillips, DDS, an oral health educator based in Austin, Texas, told Fox News Digital that she does not support water fluoridation.

Mother and her toddler drinking a glass with water from the tap

The study researcher encouraged parents of small children to be mindful of their total fluoride intake. (iStock)

“I join those who vehemently oppose public water fluoridation, and I question why our water supplies are still fluoridated in the 21st century,” she wrote in an email.

“There are non-fluoridated cities and countries where the public enjoy high levels of oral health, which in some cases appear better than those that are fluoridated.”

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Phillips called the fluoride debate “confusing” even among dentists, as the American Dental Association (ADA) advocates for fluoride use for cavity prevention through water fluoridation, toothpaste and mouthwash — “sometimes in high concentrations.”

Fluoride is used in water, toothpaste and mouthwash to help prevent cavities. (iStock)

“[But] biologic (holistic) dentists generally encourage their patients to fear fluoride and avoid its use entirely, even if their teeth are ravaged by tooth decay,” she said.

“Topical fluoride is beneficial, while systemic consumption poses risks.”

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Phillips encouraged the public to consider varying fluoride compounds, the effect of different concentrations and the “extreme difference” between applying fluoride topically and ingesting it.

“Topical fluoride is beneficial, while systemic consumption poses risks,” she cautioned.

“Individuals must take charge of their own oral health using natural and informed strategies.”

The study received funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Intramural Research Program.