Medicine has fought the disease for many years.
If something was too much, he reduced it. If it was lacking, it replaced it. It suppressed an overworked system.
This was not a bad approach. On the contrary, this is where the success of modern medicine came from. Antibiotics, blood pressure medicines, insulin... All worked with the logic of targeting the problem and intervening.
But there are some diseases that are not completely cured by this method.
Alzheimer's is one of them.
We have been targeting amyloid plaques for years. We try to reduce the protein that builds up in the brain. The logic is simple. If there is a buildup, let's clean it up. But reducing plaque does not always improve memory. This is where you stop and think;
Is it really just that protein?
Some experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that light and sound stimuli that increase a specific brain rhythm called 40 Hz can reduce amyloid burden in Alzheimer's mice. Early studies in humans have shown that this practice is safe and can actually increase that rhythm.
This is not a cure yet. But it is a question mark and a start.
Maybe it's not just about cleaning the protein.
Maybe it's a question of restoring the harmony that was broken.
Because the brain is not just a chemical organ. It is also an electrically driven network. Neurons fire in rhythm. Memory and attention are formed thanks to this synchrony. If that rhythm is disrupted, the system falls apart.
Maybe Alzheimer's “plaque disease” it's not. Maybe it's a loss of synchronization.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation is used for depression.
With Focused ultrasound, deep regions of the brain can be targeted without surgery.
The consensus is this;
In some diseases, the aim is no longer to silence the system, but to recalibrate it.
The heart works with rhythm. If the rhythm is disturbed, arrhythmia occurs.
Metabolism adjusts to daylight. If the clock breaks, everything falls apart.
The brain also works with rhythm. If that rhythm is lost, memory can also be lost.
The 20th century targeted molecules.
The 21st century will perhaps target networks.
Maybe the problem is not an excess of a substance, but a lost harmony.
Perhaps for some diseases, the real revolution is not a new medicine, but the restoration of a broken system.
Medicine is still cautious. It has to be.
But a change of direction is sometimes the greatest progress.
Fight the disease?
Or to rebuild the system?
Maybe the answer is to do both.