Alzheimer's?

[beachhead1985]

Can anyone recall if there is any mention of Alzheimer's being cured in the BTU?

Probably during the SL-Era if anything.

Thanks for your time.

[Deadborder]

If it was cured, it's not commonplace by the 3050s.

Quintus Allard was supposedly suffering from Altzhimers; in fact it was a cover story by MIIO to decrease his value as an intelligence target. And if Hanse's right hand can be belived to be suffering from it, then I suspect that a cure would not be well known.

[Orin J.]

not well known- or possibly not worth the costs of the cure. is this about looking for an in for a campaign hook?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Kai Allard-Laio was suffering from some sort of dementia by the time of his death, though I don't think the type was specified.

[beachhead1985]

not well known- or possibly not worth the costs of the cure. is this about looking for an in for a campaign hook?

No, just something for my AU I am working on. A Major Canon Character is basically dying fron Alzheimer's. But being so well-known today, I cottoned to the idea that maybe somewhere it was mentioned as cured?

[dgorsman]

No cure that I've heard of, but given the various mentions of medical advancements I would suspect there would be medication to help reduce the worst of the symptoms.

[Mendrugo]

Handbook: House Liao, p. 90 notes:

"In 3066, Duke Gregory Liao of the Sian Commonality ennobled the research team that discovered a powerful new treatment for Alzheimer's disease at Sian University."

Implication - Alzheimer's was still a problem up to the Jihad, though the Capellans had made a major breakthrough.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

And that says "treatment," not "cure."

[Tyler Jorgensson]

Well Diabetes isn't cured either, as evidenced in Blood Avatar.... I blame ComStar and the Four Sucession Wars.

[Mendrugo]

The Star League sourcebook attempted to give an in-universe explanation - that Star League-era medical research was primarily focused on battling alien plagues contracted by humans on thousands of colony worlds, placing older maladies on the back burner as far as talent and resources were concerned.  The Succession Wars didn't help the medical research community.

That being said, many of the disease treatments created during the Star League subsequently became LosTech.  Notably, League doctors were able to cure Rhean Marik's cancer, but centuries later, the First Prince of the Federated Suns, who should have had access to the best care available, died of cancer, implying that the treatment for Rhean was either LosTech, or wasn't applicable to his type of cancer.

[beachhead1985]

Handbook: House Liao, p. 90 notes:

"In 3066, Duke Gregory Liao of the Sian Commonality ennobled the research team that discovered a powerful new treatment for Alzheimer's disease at Sian University."

Implication - Alzheimer's was still a problem up to the Jihad, though the Capellans had made a major breakthrough.

This still works for me. It's quite a tricky disease, especially once you already have it.

[massey]

My head canon for any kind of disease would be that they might have treatments for it, but that doesn't mean a character can't still get a weird strain.  A disease can be "cured" in the sense that it's not really a problem anymore for the vast majority of people.  The population as a whole doesn't really get it anymore.  Doesn't mean you won't hit the bad luck lottery and wind up with it.

I'm sure there are people out there right now with scurvy.  Doesn't mean it's actually a problem on modern Earth.

[Mendrugo]

Plus, the fact that the Capellans developed a new treatment doesn't mean anyone outside the Capellan nobility is getting access to it anytime soon.

[grimlock1]

There's the minor question of "are we actually talking about Alzheimer's"?  There are a variety of different conditions that cause progressive dementia, and in common parlance, they are often grouped in with Alzheimers.   A friend's child has a seizure condition, but she doesn't have Epilepsy. Similar to "cancer" is a catch-all a huge constellation of conditions.  The condition discovered by Alois Alzheimer in 1906 may be "cured," but others could still be in the wild.

[Kovax]

Alzheimer's usually involves the widespread buildup of deposits between and possibly within the brain cells that eventually impede function.  So far, there is no way to remove the deposits without destroying the affected brain cells.

A "treatment" might involve slowing the rate of accumulation of the deposits, rather than removing them.  In essence, it could drastically slow the advance of the disease, yet not be a "cure".

[beachhead1985]

What I am doing is having a major character (David Lear) be rapidly deteriotating from Alzhiemers at the end of the 31st century.

I have personal experience of the disease and so I know how heartbreaking and vicious it is; especially to someone of great intellect, and their loved ones.

I needed something well-known and awful, that i could nonetheless have be preventable and treatable with good'ole FASA-style handwaivium tech, which the Republic doesn't have.

I felt I needed this because a) I wanted to inject some human tragedy into what are basically untouchable characters, as I understand them, b) I needed additional backup for some of what i see as the RotS stupidest policies; their creation and long-term adherance to them. Something that makes you forget is a good match for polcies that seem to be in ignorance of history. And finally; c) I needed something that could be used as mind-bleach by a sympathetic press to smother dissent, when it comes up.

I realized that I was getting a bit into this and I wanted to make sure that the disease wasn't well-known in some of the fluff as "Cured".

[roosterboy]

What I am doing is having a major character (David Lear) be rapidly deteriotating from Alzhiemers at the end of the 31st century.

Instead of Alzheimers and having to figure out if the IS can treat and/or cure it, why not just use the (fictional) condition that Lear actually died from: Harper-Gambol Syndrome?

Since it hasn't ever been described outside of the name, you are free to make it as awful or whatever as you want. And it clearly has no cure or he wouldn't be dead from it. ;)

[beachhead1985]

Instead of Alzheimers and having to figure out if the IS can treat and/or cure it, why not just use the (fictional) condition that Lear actually died from: Harper-Gambol Syndrome?

Since it hasn't ever been described outside of the name, you are free to make it as awful or whatever as you want. And it clearly has no cure or he wouldn't be dead from it. ;)

Alternate universe; he get's sick sooner. And it's established that the IS cannot cure it and other people can.

[omega2010]

That being said, many of the disease treatments created during the Star League subsequently became LosTech.  Notably, League doctors were able to cure Rhean Marik's cancer, but centuries later, the First Prince of the Federated Suns, who should have had access to the best care available, died of cancer, implying that the treatment for Rhean was either LosTech, or wasn't applicable to his type of cancer.

I seem to recall Rhean was cured by an experimental procedure from the Federated Suns.