Swindlers, scammers, and quacks fill the Internet. During times of desperation cons are quick to manipulate the vulnerable with fraudulent promises. Normally one dismisses them by thinking buyer beware and hoping that the gullible will not succumb to the hokum being plied to seduce the unwary.

The worst of the worst are the vermin that prey on families whose loved ones suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s and the many varied forms of dementia are today claiming more people than at any time in the history of the disease. Studies show that the disease increased 68% over ten years when, according to the U.S. Census, the elder population only increased by 15.1%. Families are desperate for a cure. Victims are desperate for relief. Increasing in alarming numbers across the Internet are societal vultures aiming at the hearts of the vulnerable. They are predatory parasites out to pick the pockets of desperate people while blinding them with false promises that they have a cure for the deadly disease.

Having spent several years embedded in both hospitals and nursing homes, and coming face-to-face on a daily basis with patients stricken with the long-term, but always fatal disease, it is with certainty that it can be stated that there is no cure.

Dementia has become so prevalent that everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who has it. The numbers are so great that an ill-prepared health system is not equipped to render the proper “care” that is needed for the overwhelming numbers of dementia patients that are streaming through its doors. From nurses’ aides to whistleblowers, staff complain that they are not being trained to deal with the ever increasing number of people that are incapacitated with brain diseases.

To understand the severity of the cruelty of the swindlers, it is important to understand the heartache and real-time bereavement of families confronted with most forms of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

In my latest book, “AGING: WARNING – Navigating Life’s Medical, Mental & Financial Minefields,” few have captured the devastation more succinctly than a well-knit crew of Hollywood creatives. The group is raising both money and awareness about this disease that decimates both mind and body. In as straightforward a way as they can put it, the team at Hilarity for Charity posts this warning on their fundraising website:

“There’s a thief out there. And it’s robbing people’s memories. It’s robbing their ability to talk. It’s robbing their ability to eat, walk, get dressed, shower, or recognize their loved ones. It’s robbing people of their ability to be humans. It’s called Alzheimer’s…” – Hilarity for Charity

Dr. Neal Barnard, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine talks openly that debilitating memory loss plagues his family. Though advocating a healthy diet and striving for a cure, he does not claim one. Dr. Barnard states that: “There is nothing more [important] than the connections with your loved ones. If your heart is beating, but your brain cells have been destroyed and you lose your connection with your children, grandchildren, and everyone else around you, you have lost everything and they have lost you. My hope is that we can change that and it starts with information…”

People across the nation who are both emotionally and financially devastated scour the Internet for a ray of light that there is a way out of the darkness that is Alzheimer’s. That is why families must be warned about the shocking number of advertisements that herald that Betty or Bob have gotten their memory back from a simple pill that cures Alzheimer’s. That all that people need to do is just buy and apply a special hand cream that makes those stricken with dementia mentally resilient again.

Few things are more galling than charlatans preying on families by scamming them with a false hope that they have a cure for Alzheimer’s. No cure exists. Serious research is underway searching for a cure. As yet, there is none.

As detailed in the book, “AGING: WARNING,” what patients and their families need to know is that “… sticky proteins, now scientifically linked to the consumption of processed foods, become clumped together and irretrievably shred nerve cell endings and eventually disintegrate brain cells. There is no recovery. When brain cells are attacked, the brain eventually clogs, shrinks and dies. The destruction of brain cells is permanent. The damage is not reversible. There is no restorative cure.”

Truth can be harsh. False hope is far harsher. Avoid the “miracle cure” scams posted on what appear to be legitimate and often respected websites. Do not let your heart succumb to the ploys of Internet con artists who prey on your deepest hopes and prayers. Keep your money in your pocket for those rainy days or expenditures to secure comforting care. Consider diverting your dollars to research with organizations such as the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund that reports that a 100% of all donations go towards research for a real, but as yet illusive cure.

Top research scientist Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, heads up Genetics and Aging Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Tanzi warns that you should not assume you’re immune just because you have no family history of Alzheimer’s. When asked if a cure for Alzheimer’s exists as 2016 begins, his answer is, “Absolutely not — unfortunately.” Trust that the world will know if and when there is a cure for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Meantime, protect your wallet and emotions. Ignore the scammers and the quacks. False hope is no hope at all.

Sharon Sebastian, author of the book, “AGING: WARNING– Navigating Life’s Medical, Mental & Financial Minefields,” is a columnist, commentator, and contributor in print and on nationwide broadcasts on topics ranging from healthcare, culture, religion, and politics to domestic and global policy. Sebastian’s political and cultural analyses are published nationally and internationally. Website: www.AgingWarning.com

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In a breakthrough discovery, scientists report that they have found the key to keeping cells young. In a study published Thursday in Science, an international team, led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute, studied the gene responsible for an accelerated aging disease known as Werner syndrome, or adult progeria, in which patients show signs of osteoporosis, grey hair and heart disease in very early adulthood.

These patients are deficient in a gene responsible for copying DNA, repairing any mistakes in that replication process, and for keeping track of telomeres, the fragments of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that are like a genetic clock dictating the cell’s life span. Belmonte—together with scientists at the University Catolica San Antonio Murcia and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences—wanted to understand how the mutated gene triggered aging in cells. So they took embryonic stem cells, which can develop into all of the cells of the human body, and removed this gene. They then watched as the cells aged prematurely, and found that the reason they became older so quickly had to do with how their DNA was packaged.

In order to function properly, DNA is tightly twisted and wound into chromosomes that resemble a rope in the nucleus of cells. Only when the cell is ready to divide does the DNA unwrap itself, and even then, only in small segments at a time. In patients with Werner syndrome, the chromosomes are slightly messier, more loosely stuffed into the nuclei, and that leads to instability that pushes the cell to age more quickly. Belmonte discovered that the Werner gene regulates this chromosome stability. When he allowed the embryonic stem cells that were missing this gene to grow into cells that go on to become bone, muscle and more, he saw that these cells aged more quickly.

“It’s clear that when you have alterations in [chromosome stability], the process of aging goes so quickly and so fast that it’s tempting to say, yes, this is the key process for driving aging,” says Belmonte.

Even more exciting, when he analyzed a population of stem cells taken from the dental pulp of both younger and older people, he found that the older individuals, aged 58 to 72 years, had fewer genetic markers for the chromosome instability while the younger people aged seven to 26 years showed higher levels of these indicators. (Read more from “Scientists Discover the Secret to Keeping Cells Young” HERE)

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Every face tells a story, and that story apparently includes hints of how quickly a person is aging, a new study contends.

Facial features have proven even more reliable than blood tests in spotting those for whom time is taking a heavier toll, a Chinese research team reports in the March 31 issue of the journal Cell Research.

A computerized 3-D facial imaging process uncovered a number of “tells” that show if a person is aging more rapidly, including a widening mouth, bulging nose, sagging upper lip, shrinking gums and drooping eye corners, the researchers said.

“This suggests not only that youth is ‘skin deep,’ but also that health is ‘written’ on the face,” the study authors concluded, suggesting that facial scanning could more accurately assess a person’s general health than a routine physical exam.

This sort of facial imaging is part of a cutting-edge technology aimed at estimating life expectancy and assessing health risk factors simply by taking a scan of your face, said Jay Olshansky, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health and a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research. (Read more from “Face Scans Show How Fast a Person Is Aging” HERE)

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