Complementary and alternative medicines for Alzheimer's disease

The recent successes of large, multicenter clinical trials of acetylcholine sterase inhibitors for symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease have sp awned enthusiasm that this common and fatal neurologic disease is "treatabl e." A parallel explosion has occurred in the consumption of alternative med icines by the public seeking more effective, natural, or safer methods for treatment of dementia. Some of these medicines may, in fact, be biologicall y active in modulating the disease as well as producing side effects and in teractions with accepted pharmaceuticals. This review brings to focus the s cientific evidence presently available regarding such agents.