For them with less time or willingness

The surgery connects the brain’s normal drainage system into that in the neck, leading to increased flow.

The theory is that when blockages or other occur, dysfunction follows.

The controversy is that the surgery’s history isn’t rigorous in its process. It wasn’t really done in a scientific manner, and it makes the results iffy in terms of causation.

Secondary to that, the benefits are variable between patients and seem to be temporary.

My take as an armchair nerd with some medical background.

Assuming that the causation is actually direct, it’s a major discovery, no matter how short term the benefits are. If, as the idea behind it say, then it can open up a vast range of disease to treatment. What the surgeon originating the procedure has proposed is that the extra drainage is keeping the “gunk” that is a contribution to Alzheimer’s flowing out of the brain. As such, it doesn’t build up the same.

However, some patients have had instant changes in symptoms, which shouldn’t really be the case with Alzheimer’s. Others have had marginal and/or dubious results. This may indicate that any benefits are not really about the improved drainage at all, it could be some other factor of the procedure.

That being said, rolling the dice for a few good months to a year or so of remission is still a massive boon. Alzheimer’s is fucking brutal, and it tends to come later in life where any kind of temporary improvement is both welcome and significant. I know I’d be willing to risk it if it was my brain betraying me.