Alzheimer 'Breakthrough' Tempts Families to Improvise

What would you do if had an incurable disease and heard that something simple and common may help -- a chemical found at a pet store, or in an allergy drug, or a breakthrough injection a man in California developed?

The similarities between an active ingredient in a potential Alzheimer treatment and the chemical methylene blue, commonly used as a blue dye, may lead some people to improvise, researchers fear.

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It's the sort of dilemma Alan Romantowski, a former airline pilot, faces with each news story about Alzheimer's disease treatments.

"It is tempting; I'm taking ginseng, fish oil, ginkgo and all the over-the-counter things that the doctors say don't have any proof that it helps, but it doesn't hurt," said Romantowski, 55, who is suffering from the early stages of the disease.

And not all of the solutions Romantowski has sought have been from a pharmacy. Earlier this week, he says, he "was just about packing my bags to California" to try an unproven treatment that involved injections into his head -- that is, until his doctor let him know that the so-called breakthrough treatment he heard about in California was "wacky" and unproven. ...Read More