The Express, dementia and chocolate

Another day, another 'miracle cure' on the front page of the Express:

The article - by Jo Willey, of course - begins:

A daily does of cocoa could be the secret to halting Alzheimer's, researchers claim.

So while the headline says 'can', the story says 'could' - par for the course for such stories.

It is worth comparing the Express - 'Chocolate can halt dementia' - with the first line of American Heart Association press release which says:

Eating cocoa flavanols daily may improve mild cognitive impairment...

The Express fails to mention who was behind the research:

Mars Inc. funded the study and provided the standardized cocoa drinks.

It is also worth noting that:

this study was not done with chocolate, but with lower-calorie, nutritionally balanced drinks rich in cocoa flavanols.

The Express includes quotes from the research leader, Dr Giovambattista Desideri, which are more cautious than that front page headline:

"It is yet unclear whether these benefits in cognition are a direct consequence of cocoa flavanols or a secondary effect of general improvements in cardiovascular function. Larger studies are needed to validate the findings..."

But the Express does not include this quote:

"Based on the current explosion of obesity, which is particularly evident in children, we should be careful when recommending chocolate ingestion to our patients...In real life, the progressive increment of body weight due to an unbalanced diet is likely to counterbalance the positive effects of cocoa on vascular function."

There's an important quote - in the final paragraph of the article, of course - from Alzheimer's Research UK:

“It would be useful to see more long-term studies to investigate the lasting effects. Ultimately we would need to see the results of large-scale trials to know whether cocoa flavanols could help prevent or delay dementia.”

Dr. Sam Gandy, from the Mount Sinai Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, told HealthDay:

"the lifestyle intervention with the strongest science behind it is physical exercise. I would recommend physical exercise before I would recommend chocolate...the study is interesting but requires replication before it can be taken seriously."

Or put on the front page of a paper?

'Wonder jab' fails in clinical trials

The Daily Express is well known for its very premature front page headlines declaring some new 'cure' for Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease, arthritis or blindness.

On 15 February 2011, the Express reported:

It said about Alzheimer's disease:

The world’s first Alzheimer’s vaccine could be available in the UK by the end of this year if, as expected, it gets the all-clear from licensing bodies.

Called bapineuzumab, it appears to slow or even reverse the build-up of the harmful brain deposits thought to cause the disease. The vaccine contains antibodies that are designed to prompt the immune system to attack foreign material.

Existing drugs merely ease the symptoms or slow progression of the disease but trial data suggests the vaccine may cut harmful deposits by a quarter.

Today, the Express has a rather different story on this 'wonder jab', bapineuzumab:

Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are ending development of an intravenous formulation of a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease after the treatment failed in two late-stage clinical trials.

The companies hoped bapineuzumab intravenous would slow the decline in physical and mental function for patients with Alzheimer's. However the drug did not work better than a placebo in two late-stage trials in patients who had mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease...

The two companies said on July 23 that the drug had failed in a different trial. All other studies are now being discontinued.

This is a clear example of why papers such as the Express should avoid sensationalist headlines that can give false hope.

(Hat-tip to Fflaps at the Mailwatch Forum)

Another 'cure' for Alzheimer's

On 18 July, the Express was at it again:

Despite the headline - Pill to stop Alzheimer's: News treatment will stop disease for three years - there is no pill.

What the research - conducted on 24 people - is actually about is intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) which:

is actually given by injection into a blood vessel.

The article by Giles Sheldrick does say that:

Trials of the drug...have proved so successful it could be available at chemists in pill form within a decade.

So there 'could' be a pill. At some point within the next ten years.

The NHS Behind the Headlines analysis points out:

Limited conclusions can be drawn from this research as it is early stage, was conducted on a small number of people, and was not peer-reviewed. Larger studies that compare IVIG to other existing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are required to determine how safe and effective the drug is.

And:

The research suggests that IVIG can slow down the progression of some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's but this certainly does not amount to a cure. It is unclear how long the beneficial effects of IVIG may last or whether everyone treated with IVIG would experience any benefits.

All these caveats are extremely important, given the Express' eye-catching and premature headline claim, plus the first line of the article, which states:

Alzheimer's sufferers and their devastated families were last night given new hope after scientists hailed the “most exciting” breakthrough yet in the search for a cure.

Given all the research that will need to take place over the next ten years or so, there's a very real danger that instead of giving 'new hope', such coverage gives only false hope.