Neurosurgeon Works to Slow Alzheimer's Progression, Treat Addiction with Cutting-Edge Technology
Anyone who has had experience with Alzheimer's disease knows the agony of watching someone fade away as it steals memory and at the end – a person's own identity. Tonight – we'll show you an experimental way to try and beat back Alzheimer's. It's been tested on just a handful of patients – but it caught our attention because of the doctor involved, Dr. Ali Rezai, who 60 Minutes first met 20 years ago. Dr. Rezai is a neuroscience pioneer who has developed treatments for Parkinson's disease and other brain disorders. Over the last year we followed this master of the mind as he attempted to delay the progression of Alzheimer's disease and its worst symptoms using ultrasound. We saw a cutting-edge approach to brain surgery…with no cutting.
Dr. Ali Rezai: If we can, we should not be doing brain surgery.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You're a brain surgeon!
Dr. Ali Rezai: I am, but I should be out of a job, because brain surgery, it's cutting the skin, opening the skull. It can be barbaric.
It looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie. A halo wrapped patient, pushed into a tube…as a team of doctors manipulate his brain from the other side of the glass.
