Promising progress: plasma renewal therapy as a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease

‘SHA Wellness Clinic has added to its therapeutic portfolio the Advanced Plasma Renewal treatment, also known as Therapeutic Apheresis, an innovative treatment with very promising results for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

In the case of mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease, it has been shown that the condition stabilises after six sessions of this therapy. In patients at high vascular risk, this treatment can reverse atheromatous plaques and prevent cardiovascular events.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, resulting in loss of memory and other cognitive abilities that interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease is responsible for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Alzheimer’s is not considered a normal feature of ageing, although the most important known risk factor is increasing age, and most people with Alzheimer’s are over 65.

This is a progressive disease , in which the symptoms of dementia gradually worsen over the years. In its early stages, memory loss is mild, but in the final stage of Alzheimer’s, people lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. People with Alzheimer’s live an average of eight years after symptoms become evident, but survival can range from four to 20 years, depending on age and other health conditions.

Blood purification therapy stabilises its symptoms. It is a treatment performed with a medical procedure known as apheresis which, using specialised equipment, allows the blood to be removed from a person in order to separate out undesirable components. This has many benefits, including reducing or eliminating harmful or excessive substances from the blood, such as toxins, antibodies or abnormal proteins. In addition, blood viscosity and microcirculation are immediately improved, cytokines are reduced and the inflammatory response is modulated. These benefits give this therapy a potential anti-inflammatory and cell rejuvenating effect.

Dr Rosario García, a specialist in Revitalising Medicine at SHA Wellness Clinic explains that it is “an extracorporeal procedure with which molecules and immunocomplexes involved in more than 80 different diseases can be eliminated. It is especially recommended for patients with neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis. In general, it is recommended for people who wish to improve their overall health by preventing diseases that develop or become more serious in later decades of life.

The main objective of this treatment is to purify the blood in order to eliminate or reduce harmful or excessive substances that are capable of producing a disease or are involved in its progression: toxic substances, inflammatory proteins, immunocomplexes.

“Blood purification therapy also improves the flow properties of blood by removing high molecular weight proteins, which reduces blood viscosity and improves microcirculation, tissue oxygenation and metabolic exchange processes. In addition to these effects, it also has a potential rejuvenating effect and its preventive use can counteract the onset of degenerative inflammatory processes and prevent cardiovascular effects in patients at high cardiovascular risk,” says Dr García.

On the immunological level, this therapy can decrease excessive or inappropriate immune responses by reducing the concentration of tissue-damaging antibodies and inflammatory components in the blood.