8 ms·

I'm happy for all the progress being made with cancer. I wish we would also make progress on diseases that attack the nervous system for which we seemed to have

I'm happy for all the progress being made with cancer. I wish we would also make progress on diseases that attack the nervous system for which we seemed to have made next to none. Alzheimer's, ALS, MS, Parkinson's, Hunnington's Disease, Kennedy Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, small fiber neuropathy, even benign issues such as essential tremors have no cure, and some of these are painful death sentences. We seem to know so little about how our bodies work. There are no bio markers for some of these or early detection and little idea what are the causes or the important details of what's happening as the disease progresses.

aaomidi 7y ago
The progress of these are independent from each other.
- pmiller2 7y ago
  Not totally. Those conditions have money and people working on them that could be put to work on cancer and heart disease.
- slimed 7y ago
  Unless society is willing to allocate a larger percentage of GDP towards medical research it really is zero-sum which diseases get funding and which do not.
  - afarrell 7y ago
    Yea, but if Cambridge and Somerville Massachusetts allowed more housing construction, it would be easier for medial research labs to get staff.
pmiller2 7y ago
As a matter of public health, we should really be focusing the vast majority of our efforts on cancer and cardiovascular disease. Odds are that most people will end up dying of one or the other.
- dwaltrip 7y ago
  Mental health [1] should be on that list. The amount of suffering as well as economic losses from mental health issues are overwhelming. [1] Ideally we should work towards broader / more fundamental goals such as "well-being" and "meaning", but that is even more difficult.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    Psychology research is certainly important, but not in the same way as cancer research. For mental health, what's primarily needed is more access to therapy.
    - DanBC 7y ago
      We need better, safer, anti-psychotic medication. We need better, more effective, treatment for entrenched eating disorder. We need better treatments for treatment-resistant depression or anxiety disorders.
      - penagwin 7y ago
        This. Currently most mental health medicine is like throwing darts in the dark. We clearly don't actually understand why some medications work for some people but not others. If you go through the medicine path then I can only wish you the best of luck - finding the right medicine is life changing but it's a long arduous struggle to find it currently. Not to mention the side effects...
        dodobirdlord 7y ago
        > We clearly don't actually understand why some medications work for some people but not others. There are plenty of psychoactive drugs where we have no understanding of why they work at all. Lithium is one of the oldest, most successful, and best known medications for bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia, and we have no idea which of the many effects it has on the body actually contribute to stabilizing mood.
agumonkey 7y ago
I can imagine that if some highly efficient cancer technique pops up, a vast amount of money would be freed to fund other fields.
AWildC182 7y ago
IIRC we've at least made some progress towards slowing the progression of symptoms for some of them. Would be awesome to see some huge breakthroughs though.
hobofan 7y ago
At least for Alzheimer's there has been some hopeful advances recently[0]. Given the state of the low research funding allocated for it (especially compared to the disease's prevalence), that's pretty good progress I would say (and hopefully enough to spur more investment into solving it). [0]: https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/2019-year-hope-alzheimers-research https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/2019-year-hope-a...
- johncearls 7y ago
  You'll be happy to hear that, in recent years, the funding for Alzheimer's disease has boomed. My lab does a lot of research in AD and it is probably the fastest growing area of funding by NIH, from 600 million in 2015 to 2 billion this year[0]. Also, note Aging is another real growth area and a lot of Aging programs have AD/Dementia as a sub-focus. [0]: https://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx https://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx. [Edit] from 1B to 4B if you count subcategories. Expect good things in the future.
randcraw 7y ago
There's huge interest in fighting Alzheimers and other neurodegeratives among the pharmas. Alas, there's been nearly zero success on that front after more than 20 years of effort. Until more cutting edge research can suggest more promising approaches, it's unlikely that Big Co R&D spending will climb. For now, it's going to be up up to governments to fund the big risk takers — academic labs and their offspring startups.
- btilly 7y ago
  Until more cutting edge research can suggest more promising approaches, it's unlikely that Big Co R&D spending will climb. Alzheimer's is a bad example. There is in fact evidence of success with treatments that treat underlying brain infection rather than preventing amyloid beta plaques from forming. 20 years of barking up the wrong tree may be at an end soon.
  - tremon 7y ago
    More specifically, Herpes Simplex. I don't remember where I read it, but I recall a paper arguing for Herpes being one of the viruses considered for causing (some cases of) Alzheimer's. It's even considered that amyloid beta may be a natural response of the body to the infection, not the cause: https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-herpes/ https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-herpes/
- dodobirdlord 7y ago
  As far as I know there's no letup in searching for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Spending remains high because the payoff will be huge.
- satanspastaroll 7y ago
  This makes it sound like it's all been in vain. Negative results are just as much if not more progress than the end of resolving the cure
peteretep 7y ago
> Hunnington's Disease Assuming you mean Huntington’s, there’s a whole bunch of very promising treatments being trialed.
- rosybox 7y ago
  Yes I had a typo, I can't edit the post now. I'm glad promising treatments are on the way.

aaomidi 7y ago

The progress of these are independent from each other.

pmiller2 7y ago
Not totally. Those conditions have money and people working on them that could be put to work on cancer and heart disease.
slimed 7y ago
Unless society is willing to allocate a larger percentage of GDP towards medical research it really is zero-sum which diseases get funding and which do not.
- afarrell 7y ago
  Yea, but if Cambridge and Somerville Massachusetts allowed more housing construction, it would be easier for medial research labs to get staff.

pmiller2 7y ago

As a matter of public health, we should really be focusing the vast majority of our efforts on cancer and cardiovascular disease. Odds are that most people will end up dying of one or the other.

dwaltrip 7y ago
Mental health [1] should be on that list. The amount of suffering as well as economic losses from mental health issues are overwhelming. [1] Ideally we should work towards broader / more fundamental goals such as "well-being" and "meaning", but that is even more difficult.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  Psychology research is certainly important, but not in the same way as cancer research. For mental health, what's primarily needed is more access to therapy.
  - DanBC 7y ago
    We need better, safer, anti-psychotic medication. We need better, more effective, treatment for entrenched eating disorder. We need better treatments for treatment-resistant depression or anxiety disorders.
    - penagwin 7y ago
      This. Currently most mental health medicine is like throwing darts in the dark. We clearly don't actually understand why some medications work for some people but not others. If you go through the medicine path then I can only wish you the best of luck - finding the right medicine is life changing but it's a long arduous struggle to find it currently. Not to mention the side effects...
      - dodobirdlord 7y ago
        > We clearly don't actually understand why some medications work for some people but not others. There are plenty of psychoactive drugs where we have no understanding of why they work at all. Lithium is one of the oldest, most successful, and best known medications for bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia, and we have no idea which of the many effects it has on the body actually contribute to stabilizing mood.

agumonkey 7y ago

I can imagine that if some highly efficient cancer technique pops up, a vast amount of money would be freed to fund other fields.

AWildC182 7y ago

IIRC we've at least made some progress towards slowing the progression of symptoms for some of them. Would be awesome to see some huge breakthroughs though.

hobofan 7y ago

At least for Alzheimer's there has been some hopeful advances recently[0]. Given the state of the low research funding allocated for it (especially compared to the disease's prevalence), that's pretty good progress I would say (and hopefully enough to spur more investment into solving it). [0]: https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/2019-year-hope-alzheimers-research https://www.alzforum.org/news/research-news/2019-year-hope-a...

johncearls 7y ago
You'll be happy to hear that, in recent years, the funding for Alzheimer's disease has boomed. My lab does a lot of research in AD and it is probably the fastest growing area of funding by NIH, from 600 million in 2015 to 2 billion this year[0]. Also, note Aging is another real growth area and a lot of Aging programs have AD/Dementia as a sub-focus. [0]: https://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx https://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx. [Edit] from 1B to 4B if you count subcategories. Expect good things in the future.

randcraw 7y ago

There's huge interest in fighting Alzheimers and other neurodegeratives among the pharmas. Alas, there's been nearly zero success on that front after more than 20 years of effort. Until more cutting edge research can suggest more promising approaches, it's unlikely that Big Co R&D spending will climb. For now, it's going to be up up to governments to fund the big risk takers — academic labs and their offspring startups.

btilly 7y ago
Until more cutting edge research can suggest more promising approaches, it's unlikely that Big Co R&D spending will climb. Alzheimer's is a bad example. There is in fact evidence of success with treatments that treat underlying brain infection rather than preventing amyloid beta plaques from forming. 20 years of barking up the wrong tree may be at an end soon.
- tremon 7y ago
  More specifically, Herpes Simplex. I don't remember where I read it, but I recall a paper arguing for Herpes being one of the viruses considered for causing (some cases of) Alzheimer's. It's even considered that amyloid beta may be a natural response of the body to the infection, not the cause: https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-herpes/ https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-herpes/
dodobirdlord 7y ago
As far as I know there's no letup in searching for treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Spending remains high because the payoff will be huge.
satanspastaroll 7y ago
This makes it sound like it's all been in vain. Negative results are just as much if not more progress than the end of resolving the cure

peteretep 7y ago

> Hunnington's Disease Assuming you mean Huntington’s, there’s a whole bunch of very promising treatments being trialed.

rosybox 7y ago
Yes I had a typo, I can't edit the post now. I'm glad promising treatments are on the way.