A $150 Device Can Give You an ‘Ultrasonic Brain Massage’—And Possibly Treat Alzheimer’s, Doctor Suggests

4 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:A cheap, handheld ultrasound device could stabilize tiny brain cell structures that are disrupted in patients with Alzheimer’s disease—and possibly even help solve the mystery of human consciousness. You can sign up for the pilot study; all you need is a doctor’s permission.The experimental therapy comes from the mind of Stuart Hameroff, MD, an anesthesiologist known for his controversial theory of consciousness.A clinical anesthesiologist known for putting forth one of the most controversial theories of human consciousness believes that putting a $150 object the size of a hairdryer against your head for a short period each day could one day stop or reverse dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Stuart Hameroff, MD, says a budget brain zapper that treats the whole brain with unfocused, low-intensity ultrasound could reverse the disruption of tiny structures in the brain, called microtubules, which provide the structure for the brain’s neurons. As the system collapses, memories and cognition are lost.There are tens of thousands of microtubules in every neuron. The most prevalent protein in them is called tau. When scientists examined the neuronal cells of people who have died from Alzheimer’s, they discovered piles of tau that appear to have fallen off the microtubules, stuck together in clumps called Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), or tau tangles. When tau shows up in a patient’s bloodstream or urine, you know the disease is worsening.In Alzheimer’s disease, Hameroff says, scientists don’t know whether the microtubules disintegrate and release the tau or whether the tau falls off due to a malfunction that weakens the bond. Regardless, he says, there’s a clear correlation between this breakup and Alzheimer’s. Hameroff’s research shows that a cheap ultrasound device that targets the whole brain could encourage microtubules to hold themselves together and re-form if they’ve fallen apart.Hameroff began wondering about the therapeutic effects of ultrasound on the brain and its microtubules while working with quantum mechanics expert Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, who heads the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan. Bandyopadhyay previously discovered that numerous bands of electromagnetic and mechanical energy exist within microtubules, at multiple frequencies and time signatures.Plus, existing studies have demonstrated that applying low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) to the hippocampus of Alzheimer’s patients daily for three minutes increased metabolic activity in the hippocampus and improved cognition in two areas within just 26 days, all without adverse effects.It’s important, Hameroff notes, that ultrasound therapy can either be focused or unfocused and used at three different intensity levels. For instance, we now know that at high intensities, focused ultrasound heats tissue and can destroy lesions, like tumors. At medium intensities into the brain, ultrasound opens the blood-brain barrier; at low intensities, it generally causes pleasant mood enhancement.Hameroff’s approach, called Transcranial UltraSound (TUS) would benefit Alzheimer’s patients, he says, because memory is stored all over the brain, with emotions, skills, spatial awareness, and sensory recall located in various parts of the cortex—not just in one place, like the hippocampus. Better yet, an ultrasound machine at a hospital costs around $70,000, Hameroff says, but therapeutic TUS wouldn’t require imaging, and there are expendable, safe, and inexpensive devices available.Sterling Cooley, an ultrasound engineering friend of Hameroff’s, had been conducting informal clinical testing with a particular device he found safe and reliable, the “USPro 2000.” (Hameroff kept his distance, given that he has a medical license to protect.) Hameroff spoke with The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), an American non-profit parapsychological research institute, and they offered to use their Institutional Review Board to validate Cooley’s results. IONS instituted a pilot study in which participants “self-administer the ultrasound stimulation at home over several weeks while tracking changes in cognition, mood, and quality of life.”The IONS Institutional Review Board insisted that if patients wanted to enroll in the study, they had to have their doctor’s permission. That slowed things down, Hameroff says. “We have to be careful what we say,” Hameroff says. “We’re not treating Alzheimer’s. We’re treating mental memory problems. And we call it brain massage, ultrasonic brain massage. Which sounds a little bit better.”Not only could the therapy benefit Alzheimer’s patients, it could also help prove Hameroff’s theory that microtubules are where not only memories—but human consciousness itself—lives in human the brain. He is hoping for more funding to advance this treatment effort.“My dream, I guess, is with approval and consent of course, to go to the memory care facility near my house, which has gone from one city block to five city blocks since I’ve lived there, and go room to room and give everybody, you know, five minutes of TUS.”Then, he’d like to modify the machine to use all the microtubule resonant frequencies Bandyopadhyay has discovered. He wants to call it “The Tubulator 5000.”“Yeah,” he says, “maybe we’ll do that.”Susan Lahey contributed reporting to this story.