US Dementia Patient Finds Treatment In UK

The bottomline in the case of medical treatment is recovery, and that is what the Fennells got after traveling halfway around the world, from the United States, where they are from, to the United Kingdom for the treatment of Clem Fennell, who was suffering from an aggressive form of dementia.

Clem, who heads his family’s engineering firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States, decided to come to UK for treatment after neurologists there told him there was nothing they could do to prevent his dementia from progressing further.

The 57-year old Clem Fennell opted for the revolutionary treatment being offered by a British GP from County Durham, Dr. Gordon Dougal, which involved wearing a helmet that emitted infra-red light directly to the brain in 10-minute sessions. The results of Dr. Dougal’s helmet treatment have been nothing short of astonishing, according to Clem’s wife Vicky.

When they came to Dr. Dougal for the treatment, Clem could not do many of the things that normal people do, such as taking a phone call, ordering at a restaurant, or even speak more than a few words at a stretch. After undergoing the treatment for three weeks, his condition has improved to the extent that he can go shopping on his own.

Speaking about the improvement in Clem after he started the treatment, 55-year old Vicky said, “My husband, Clem, was fading away. It is as if he is back. His personality has started to show again. We are absolutely thrilled.”

This is what Maggie, Clem’s 22-year old daughter, had to say about the improvement in her father’s condition, “When we go to the restaurant we usually have to order his meals for him, now he can order for himself. Now we are okay about letting him go to the bank or the post office but he would not have been able to do that three weeks ago.”

So what brought about the change in Clem’s condition? The helmet; obviously, which was developed with Sunderland University. It basically contains light-emitting diodes, 700 of them, which work to stimulate the neurons of the brain of the person wearing it. By stimulating the neurons, the helmet is able to retard the onset of dementia.

The helmet has yet to prove its mettle in the clinical trials that it will be subjected to, but going by Clem’s experience, the infra-red rays it emits has a tremendous effect on the brain.

Dr. Dougal said it was important to put the helmet trough a completely-controlled clinical trial before making it available to patients. Such a trial, involving 100 patients, could kick off this year.

Dr. Dougal, said, “Potentially, this is hugely significant… I made it clear to the Fennells that I didn’t know for a fact whether it would work or not, but the results are good. He was monosyllabic when I first saw him, but if I ring up now he will answer the phone. He didn’t have the verbal skills to do that three weeks ago.”

While the helmet currently seems an amazing invention, it will be a while before we come to know how useful it will be to other patients, especially given that symptoms for dementia and Alzheimer’s tend to be different on different days.

In a statement regarding these developments, the Alzheimer’s Society said, “A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who live with this devastating condition.”

The Society added, “Non-thermal near infra-red treatment for people with dementia is a potentially interesting technique. We look forward to further research to determine whether it could help improve cognition in humans. Only then can we begin to investigate whether near infra-red could benefit people with dementia.”

If and when the helmet gets the clearance for commercial use, it would still have the 700 LEDs and would be priced at approximately £10,000. As for the Fennells, they are free to take the prototype helmet with them back to the US where they can continue to use it to treat Clem.