New study shows Alzheimer's disease can be reversed to achieve full neurological recovery--not just prevented or slowed--i

[LiberalArkie]

December 23, 2025

For more than a century, people have considered Alzheimer's disease (AD) an irreversible illness. Consequently, research has focused on preventing or slowing it, rather than recovery. Despite billions of dollars spent on decades of research, there has never been a clinical trial of any drug to reverse and recover from AD.

A research team from Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals (UH) and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center has now challenged this long-held dogma in the field, testing whether brains already badly afflicted with advanced AD could recover.

The study, led by Kalyani Chaubey, from the Pieper Laboratory, was published online Dec. 22 in Cell Reports Medicine. Using diverse preclinical mouse models and analysis of human AD brains, the team showed that the brain’s failure to maintain normal levels of a central cellular energy molecule, NAD+, is a major driver of AD, and that maintaining proper NAD+ balance can prevent and even reverse the disease.

NAD+ levels decline naturally across the body, including the brain, as people age. Without proper NAD+ balance, cells eventually become unable to execute many of the critical processes required for proper functioning and survival. In this study, the team showed that the decline in NAD+ is even more severe in the brains of people with AD, and that this same phenomenon also occurs in mouse models of the disease.

Snip

https://case.edu/news/new-study-shows-alzheimers-disease-can-be-reversed-achieve-full-neurological-recovery-not-just-prevented-or-slowed-animal-models

[bucolic_frolic]

1. So after all this time, nutritional supplements are available hiding in plain sight

Nice that medicine advances.

Google "how to get more nad+"

It's all there.

[KLK1972]

3. This study uses a drug, P7C3-A20

OTC NAD+ at therapeutic levels (high enough to produce this effect) promotes cancer. Also important to note, this is a preclinical trial, without human testing yet. It is a promising first step though!

[COL Mustard]

23. So this means

That Trump might return to normalcy? Damn, that’s frightening.

[KLK1972]

7. Exercise is the best method

Exercise activates an enzyme that stimulates NAD+ recycling. Sleep is also important! Supplements are not recommended.

[Irish_Dem]

10. How much exercise and what kind?

How much sleep?

[ananda]

21. Okay

From what i've read, at least 6 hours a night.

Also, I suspect any amount of exercise would do.

Enough to strengthen the core and the glutes
which helps stability and prevents falls...

and enough for cardiovascular strength and
circulation.

[Irish_Dem]

26. Maybe both weight lifting and cardio create the NDA?

[ananda]

30. Maybe

At my age, I'm just grateful for what I can do.

So far, so good.

[Irish_Dem]

31. Yes. And if it loads on anti-dementia, all the better.

[Nigrum Cattus]

8. with supplements -

I take NMN, not NAD+ because it works better for me
also, NADH
https://www.rollingstone.com/product-recommendations/lifestyle/best-nmn-supplements-1235476999/

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. One study of mice does not equal a cure for humans

Let’s see a double blind controlled study with Alzheimer’s patients before we pop the cork on the champagne.

[hlthe2b]

6. Yes... with my qualifiers below...

[Martin68]

13. Remarkable claims of a cure need to be backed up by remarkable evidence. Any breakthrough is welcome, even if it

merely slows down or ameliorates the degenerative process, but an outright "cure" based on the production of one molecule sounds dubious to me.

[stopdiggin]

19. Yes! Not that this isn't very interesting, and fully deserving of discussion

but the claims of 'full functioning reversal' - are completely over-wrought - i.e. unfounded.

and that deserves being knocked back a step.

[hlthe2b]

5. Always encouraging. One preliminary caution though, these studies most often enroll confirmed AD patients

and non-AD control comparisons with very strict exclusion criteria so as to avoid confounding factors, like cerebral vascular disease, moderate to severe cardiac insufficiency or other chronic health conditions that likewise influence brain function and thus response to NAD+ in their study. While a healthy population (especially those with early onset Alzheimer's) is out there and likewise in need of interventions, it may be difficult to extrapolate these findings--even with further validation--to the majority of AD patients (or those identified to be most at risk), depending on how well and how early their concomitant additional health issues are identified and treated.

Still, a positive development that bears watching once human studies become available (while taking the qualifiers above into account).

[TheRickles]

9. Click-bait headline.

It's a promising development, but nowhere near the implied reversal of Alzheimers (as other commenters have also noted).

[Progressive dog]

11. So the dead brain cells grow back?

I recently read a Scientific American article on how Alzheimer's might be due to slowed clearing of waste from the brain.
There are a lot of new theories trying to explain why getting rid of the amyloid plaques of Alzheimer's does not reverse the disease or even halt it's progression substantially.

[LiberalArkie]

12. Who knows.. I remember that when a nerve was cut, like in an accident, that it would never - ever reconnect. That

anything below that nerve was gone. That the muscle or feeling would never return.

[GreatGazoo]

14. Creatine being studied now

Dirt cheap, heavily tested and used.

They saw a moderate improvement in working memory, which is task-oriented memory Taylor likened to the memory required for the classic card-matching game Concentration. Participants also demonstrated a moderate boost in executive functioning, another cognitive domain highly affected by Alzheimer’s disease that includes a person’s ability to focus and ignore distractions. “That tends to change in Alzheimer's disease as people progress,” Taylor said. “And we saw what we could call nearly statistically significant improvement in that. They got better at it.”

https://www.kumc.edu/about/news/news-archive/creatine-alzheimers-research.html

[multigraincracker]

17. I have some but forget to take it

Helps with depression too. Been studied for over 50 years. Not so good for those with kidney disease.

[GreatGazoo]

20. I started it 3 months ago for better sleep

after I saw the studies about jet lag and creatine. It worked right away for me. Life changing because I have had sleep issues that made me foggy in the morning.

I do the compressed pills, 3-gram. Makes it easy to carry and be consistent.

[LiberalArkie]

33. What kind? Sleep is one thing I really miss.

[GreatGazoo]

35. For me the effect was better quality of sleep

Stayed asleep more consistently, lucid dreaming, feeling rested and focused.

I went for the lowest dose - 3 grams:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Six-Star-Pro-Nutrition-Creatine-Caplets-60-Ct/15724164?classType=REGULAR&athbdg=L1100&adsRedirect=true

[LiberalArkie]

36. Thank you, I will order some and give it a whirl..

[LiberalArkie]

38. When are you taking it? at Night?

[GreatGazoo]

39. Early in the day

with food. Usually right at the end of breakfast.

It doesn't make you sleepy.

REM sleep uses more energy than we used to think and it can be impaired. So the cognitive and energy boost creatine gives during the day carries over to sleep. It is not a hormone or stimulant. It just makes more energy available at the cellular level.

One of the more recent studies looked female athletes but the effect is not specific to either gender.

Creatine Improves Total Sleep Duration

Females historically experience sleep disturbances and overall poor sleep compared to males. Creatine has been proposed to impact sleep; however, the effects are not well known. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of creatine supplementation on sleep among naturally menstruating females.
...
Compared to the placebo group, those consuming creatine experienced significant increases in total sleep

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39203908/

[LiberalArkie]

40. Fantastic... I took it late yesterday afternoon and slept pretty good..

I still woke up a couple of times to go to the bathroom but crawled back into the bed and went right back to sleep.. Did not reach for my phone to browse the news once during the night. Very unusual for me..

Thank you

[TheRickles]

25. "nearly statistically significant" equals "not significant". Sorry - maybe someday, but not yet.

[Sogo]

15. Encouraging!

Thanks for posting this!

[progressoid]

16. Time for RFK jr to step in and stop this witchcraft!

[tinrobot]

18. There's no better time in history to be a mouse!

Hopefully, they can replicate this in humans.

Until they do, let's not get too excited.

[snowybirdie]

22. Promising early days

Maybe some day.........What is available is problematic. Who is aware that the two drugs to slow ALZ, , kisunla and Lequembi, have serious side effects such as brain bleed and stroke? And improvement is only 25-30%? I cringe seeing them now heavily promoted on tv with the downside not really mentioned except said quickly without anyone understanding at the end of the commercial.

[wolfie001]

24. TikTok scammers will run with this

More "Green Powder Elixirs" in a glass of water every am incoming. $50 for a month's supply.
[img][/img]



P.S.- I know the quote hasn't been proven to ever be said by PT so no need to elucidate that.

[NNadir]

27. In almost every case, these "breakthrough" posts raise false hopes. This is true for almost every University news...

...release, notably in medicine, but widely found with respect to energy "breakthroughs."

Alzheimer's is a very tragic disease, and regrettably, its history is littered with scientific announcements of "breakthroughs" that have not panned out.

In at least one case - and I'm not implying this is the case here - a "breakthrough" was found to consist entirely of scientific fraud.

It is very difficult to ascertain what behaviors in a mouse display "full recovery."

I covered this case elsewhere here; books have been written on it.

Some remarks on purported fraud concerned with αβ oligomer hypothesis in Alzheimer's research.

There has been some criticism of the tone of Charles Piller's article in Science, as well as his book expanding on the article, Doctored Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer's

Criticism by an Alzheimer's researcher of Piller's book and claims can be found here: Fraud, arrogance, and tragedy: the case of Doctored

Alzheimer's is a terrible and generally intractable disease; as a scientist, I certainly applaud research. I am too old though, and have lived too long, to jump up and down with joy every time a "breakthrough" is announced. I have worked for much of my life in support of drug development and am aware of pitfalls - huge pitfalls - that occur along the way to medical treatments. This is not to say that some them don't work; obviously they do, but the road is long, painful, and littered with failure.

[Irish_Dem]

28. RFK Jr doesn't want people living longer.

He wants them to drop dead as soon as possible.

[IA8IT]

29. Three to five years from Type one diabetes cure since 1987....When my 6yr old's test was positive.

Zero faith a cure will be found when treatment is so profitable.

[flashman13]

32. If this story were true it would be all over every news service in the world. So yes - I'm skeptical.

[Upthevibe]

34. LiberalArkie ..........

Thanks for your post.

I just started taking Creatine a few weeks ago as recommended by two of my good friends. Since June, I've lost 40-50 lbs! I've been taking the weight loss injections (Zepbound) off and on, and it's been amazing. I've completely changed what I eat, and I go to the gym about five days a week.

Exercise/working out is everything people say it is! I feel great afterwards and basically most of the time. I'm hearing more and more that it also helps with cognition.

Thanks again!

[wackadoo wabbit]

37. In mice! The results are in bloody mice! As a famous oncologist once told me,

"We've cured cancer hundreds of times . . . in mice." And he was right. Unfortunately, my husband later died of the cancer that that oncologist was a world-class expert of.

So forgive me if I say, get back to me when there are positive human trials. Until then, this means bupkis.