The medical industry evolves rapidly. That’s part of their business models for maintaining high levels of profitability. But that isn’t an InterWined complaint. What’s money when lives are saved, or at least lived to the fullest comfort?

One of the latest moves is to get people off of pills. This is based on a new set of studies that show that all of those years of being pushed to pop synthetic pills to solve a problem have yielded inconsistent results in patients.

Pills, as it turns out, do very little by way of prevention. Zinc and Echinatia supplements help prevent colds, but to a much lesser degree than absorbing the molecules naturally. Once one has a cold, though, pills are some of best ways to relieve symptoms, such as fever, sniffles, aches and pains.

This underlines the importance of drinking wine responsibly, as a preventative against major chronic illness, such as heart disease and dementia, which, by the way are not conditions linked to aging. They are diseases that do not occur naturally. And, interestingly, science still grapples with what is, and isn’t, a single form of dementia, presumably hindering proper diagnosis.

Researchers examined the evidence in favour of giving people considered to be close to developing dementia the drugs that are most commonly used to treat the condition itself. They have concluded that these drugs (cholinesterase inhibitors) do not seem to delay the appearance of Alzheimer disease or other forms of dementia.

Three cholinesterase inhibitors – donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine – are currently approved for use in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer disease. Some experts are not convinced that they are effective, but other experts and patient support groups have called for the drugs to be given to people with “mild cognitive impairment (MCI)” – the term that is used to describe the condition where people have memory problems that are more severe than those normally seen in others of their age, but otherwise have no symptoms of dementia. It is believed that people with MCI are at high risk of developing Alzheimer disease.

Dr Roberto Raschetti and colleagues at Italy’s National Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion in Rome conducted a systematic review of the data from clinical trials that had addressed the use of cholinesterase inhibitors with MCI patients. In none of the six trials that they examined did the use of the drugs significantly reduce the rate of progression from MCI to dementia.

One problem that came to light during their review was that there is no generally accepted precise definition for MCI. There was therefore some variation between the trials in the mental state of the people given the drugs. Dr Raschetti and his team have called for more clinical trials to be done, but using a single agreed definition of mild cognitive impairment. Until such trials have found a benefit from using cholinesterase inhibitors in this way, there seems to be no justification for doctors to do so in clinical practice.

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