The Causation Rabbit Hole

I had a really interesting discussion today.

The thing that drives international research into neurodegenerative disorders is the hunt for The Cause. Billions of dollars have been spent to find The Cause of Alzheimer's disease, The Cause of Parkinson's disease and so on.

In the case of Alzheimer's disease, The Cause was proclaimed to be amyloid plaques accumulating in the brain. Billions of dollars and umpteen years later came the fancy, expensive, new medication that could dissolve plaques in the brain. After testing, it didn't work.

It didn't work! The Cause of Alzheimer's was nothing to do with plaques. Think of all that money and time down the gurgler.

So is the hunt for The Cause worth all that money and all that time? Nope.

If I have a flat tyre, I have two options.

1. Starting walking back the way I've come to find The Cause of my flat tyre

2. Try to fix the darn thing.

Who cares about the cause of the flat tyre. It is a waste of time to worry about it.

Same with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's - the causation rabbit hole has got us nowhere.

Most people don't care what the cause is, they want something NOW that will help them manage, help them feel a bit better and help them live a better life despite the disease.

Transcranial red/near infrared lights can provide help. Right now. Sure, it is not a cure, but it can and does make living with and managing the disease much easier.

It is likely that the daily red lights slow down the progression of the disease process. This makes sense scientifically and I'm seeing this in the people who have been using daily red lights for over 2 years now. A number have not had to increase their medication, all have retained the improvements made in the first six months, and all will not countenance stopping the use of their red light hats.

If I had the proverbial magic wand, it would be to produce a tiny proportion of The Cause research funds to do some really high class research into the effects of red/near infrared lights in people with neurodegerative diseases. We are talking about a few million dollars, not billions. With this research, we can help people now. Right now.