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Comment by kamac | Hacker News Reader

Apparently they still haven't been able to translate the treatment to work on humans.

Also, it hasn't yet been proven that the treatment itself is completely safe for the brain.

And it doesn't have to be - the side effects are to be weighted against the benefits.

Exactly. Once your brain stops working you've got nothing to lose and many people would rather take a 10% chance of living over a 100% chance of dying. It's the same with cancer, you try everything there is and even extreme side effects can be tolerated.

I wouldn't go that far. I know a number of people (myself included) for whom there is a threshold for sideeffect vs longevity. As a chronic pain patient, even now that's are treatments possible, but I would be unable to keep my job, or even enjoy much I currently do. How valuable is life when you can't take part in it?

I imagine you don't have to be too far along into Alzheimer's to decide the side effects are worth it.

You don't want longevity with Alzheimer's. Talk about not being able to take part in life..

I would rather die than live with Alzheimers.

The scary thing is that we can't understand what it feels like to have Alzheimer. Once progressed you become unable to judge the situation like you are used to. The world looks different from a patient's perspective.

Having worked in a nursing home, the outlook someone with Alzheimer's has in not pleasant. It's confusing and, in the early stages, you're aware of everything you love and the understanding of your place in the world slowly slipping away.

It's not some peaceful slip into senility and oblivion... it's more like a sawtooth graph of waxing and waning awareness, punctuated with extreme frustration, and terror.

I've only had contact to patients experiencing the calm phase. It must be hell slipping in and out of consciousness and realizing for a short moment what is happening until it vanishes again. It's stuff for nightmares.

I know what it is like to have lost a favorite book and look for it in vain for days before the love wears off. If I had that feeling every day, just the feeling alone would cause my mind to break down. Ever remember having a great idea, but not remember what the idea was?

however it has been proven that Alzheimer's is completely unsafe for the brain.

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