Doctored Photographs And The Search For An Effective Alzheimer's Treatment

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

About 55 million people in the world have dementia. That's according to the World Health Organization. It's also the seventh leading cause of death among the global population.

The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. It makes up 60 to 70 percent of cases. But it's well behind other chronic illnesses on the journey to an effective treatment.

The reason may be attributed to years of research based on doctored images. Investigative reporter Charles Piller uncovered that and much more about the world of Alzheimer's research in his new book, "Doctored."

We talk to Piller about this Alzheimer's, faulty research, and the search for an effective cure.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The World Health Organization says about 55 million people around the world
0:11.9	suffer from dementia.
0:13.6	That's a general term for loss of memory, language, problem solving, and other cognitive skills.
0:18.7	The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease.
0:22.2	My name is Kerry. I'm in Utah. My family has been devastated by Alzheimer's. My mother died with
0:31.0	Alzheimer's. One of my sisters recently died with it, and I have a sister currently who has it, and it's absolutely horrifying.
0:39.3	It's impossible to cope with it. The rest of the family, we are just devastated by it financially
0:44.2	and emotionally. Thanks for that message, Carrie. Alzheimer's disease makes up 60 to 70% of
0:50.9	dementia cases, and even though it was discovered almost 120 years ago, one hypothesis
0:56.1	has dominated research around the root cause of the disease and thus how to treat it. But now
1:01.6	an investigation is revealed that one of the most cited Alzheimer's research papers was manipulated.
1:06.9	Some of the images behind that research were doctored. Investigative journalist Charles Spiller details that investigation in his new book,
1:14.4	doctored, fraud, arrogance, and tragedy in the quest to cure Alzheimer's.
1:19.2	He joins us after the break to talk about his book and research.
1:23.2	I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart of the story.
1:29.3	Stay with us. We've got a lot to get into you.
1:37.0	Charles, welcome to the program. Nice to be here, Jen.
1:47.3	Charles, how are you thinking about the release of your book, one that talks about fraud at science institutions during a time when anti-science beliefs are highly visible?
1:49.9	Thanks so much for that question, Jen.
1:53.0	It's something that, of course, is greatly on my mind these days.
2:04.1	I have to say that we are very fortunate in the United States to have important and very effective institutions of science that have well guarded the drug supply and the food safety of our nation, the Food and Drug Administration, the funder, NIH, which
2:11.8	funds most of the biomedical research in the country, and as well as the scholarly journals and the universities that are the
	...

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