A DISEASED MIND

One of the branches of LOST theories is mental experiments. The premise of the show has to be centered upon some mental institution where evil scientists are probing the minds of the main characters, manipulating their consciousness while under medications or sedation. 

It is possible to make a connection between the strange and wild mental swings of the characters to anyone who has watched the slow unraveling of the mind of a loved one to Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer's is one of the crueler diseases because it does not affect the patient's body but slowly takes away their mind.  Or so that is how loved one perceive is happening to the patient because the patient begins to lose a sense of reality, goes back deeper into memory, to finally be lost to the real world.

Science knows how crucial it is to develop new treatments. In America alone, currently more than 5.3 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and 15 million are providing care for loved ones with the disease. Unless treatments are developed to slow or even cure it, 28 million baby boomers will fall ill with Alzheimer's by 2040, consuming 24 percent of Medicare spending, according to AAIC.

Alzheimer’s, an aggressive form of age-related dementia is a result of accumulations and “misfolding” of proteins in the brain known as amyloid fibrils and tau tangles. 

In large amounts, these proteins are toxic to brain cells and cause degeneration.

But there is hope on the horizon for earlier detection due to new research, and new studies into treatments that may eventually lead to drugs and, possibly, a cure. Since Alzheimer’s is generally considered an elderly person’s disease, very early onset Alzheimer’s—which can begin as early as age 50—often goes undetected until it’s far too late for significant symptom treatment. That's why earlier detection is such a focus of research. 

The idea that the LOST universe is the collapsing mind of an Alzheimer's patient has never been discussed as a fan theory, but it makes some sense. If the LOST characters actions on the island were internal manifestations of the disease at various levels of severity (like when Claire went squirrel insane), then the island as a fantasy world inhabited by "real" people makes some sense.

A wasted mind is a terrible thing. A diseased mind is a sad occurrence. If one has wasted their life, would those regrets and sadness compound themselves in a diseased mind to create a vivid and dangerous LOST world?