Another Article About Alzheimer’s - A Breakthrough?

[CaptTom]

Much as I hope they're right, and a treatment or even vaccine will be available soon, I've heard this type of thing before. Anyone remember cold fusion?

At any rate, here's the article:
Gum disease causing bacteria could spur Alzheimer's | Science | AAAS

The theory is very plausible, and agrees well with other research suggesting bacteria - and the body's reaction to it - play a major part in the disease. Obviously it's too early to say we have "the" cause, or even one of the causes, never mind a treatment. But it sounds like the research is pretty far along, and clinical studies are underway. Fingers crossed!!

 

[SumDay]

Running to go floss now...

 

[donheff]

Yeah, if this pans out it could be huge.

 

[O2Bfree]

It'd be interesting to rate the levels of oral health among the states and countries with the highest and lowest rates of Alzheimer's. From https://braintest.com/alzheimers-statistics-throughout-the-united-states-and-worldwide/:

The top ten countries who are most affected by Alzheimer’s include (in the correct order of highest rate): Finland, United States, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, and Belgium. Those with the lowest rates include India, Cambodia, Georgia, and Singapore.

Do people in Cambodia have better oral health than people in Finland or the US?

 

[O2Bfree]

Here's a more detailed map of Alzheimer's/dementia-related deaths rates by country:

https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers-dementia/by-country/

 

[MRG]

It'd be interesting to rate the levels of oral health among the states and countries with the highest and lowest rates of Alzheimer's. From https://braintest.com/alzheimers-statistics-throughout-the-united-states-and-worldwide/:

The top ten countries who are most affected by Alzheimer’s include (in the correct order of highest rate): Finland, United States, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, and Belgium. Those with the lowest rates include India, Cambodia, Georgia, and Singapore.

Do people in Cambodia have better oral health than people in Finland or the US?

Perhaps they have theirs removed early in other places. That used to be a thing 100+ years ago in this country.

 

[cathy63]

It'd be interesting to rate the levels of oral health among the states and countries with the highest and lowest rates of Alzheimer's. From https://braintest.com/alzheimers-statistics-throughout-the-united-states-and-worldwide/:

The top ten countries who are most affected by Alzheimer’s include (in the correct order of highest rate): Finland, United States, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, and Belgium. Those with the lowest rates include India, Cambodia, Georgia, and Singapore.

Do people in Cambodia have better oral health than people in Finland or the US?

Or is cause of death more accurately determined and documented in Finland than in Cambodia? Or are people in Cambodia who would have gotten Alzheimers more likely to die of other causes before they sink into dementia than they are in Finland?

I find this research fascinating and hope they've found at least one cause of such a terrible disease and maybe some pointers as to where to look for other causes. I think there are many questions yet to be answered though.

 

[kgtest]

It'd be interesting to rate the levels of oral health among the states and countries with the highest and lowest rates of Alzheimer's. From https://braintest.com/alzheimers-statistics-throughout-the-united-states-and-worldwide/:

The top ten countries who are most affected by Alzheimer’s include (in the correct order of highest rate): Finland, United States, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, and Belgium. Those with the lowest rates include India, Cambodia, Georgia, and Singapore.

Do people in Cambodia have better oral health than people in Finland or the US?

Wait, no France? I thought they had the problem...or is that a stereotype...asking cuz I've never been and met maybe 1 or 2 frenchmen in my life lol .

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Several other studies that have moved beyond the mouse model are looking into the potential role of infectious disease WRT Alzheimer's. One of the more promising is looking at Herpes virus. A quote and some evidence --

Carter cautions that the new reports should not be interpreted to mean that there is likely a single, unique Alzheimer’s pathogen, if there is one at all. “These data suggest that multiple pathogens, and not just these viruses, likely contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. It is also likely that the pathogens may vary between Alzheimer’s patients.”

A new paper in Neuron, though, looks to be the most unignorable one yet with evidence that there’s some sort of viral/bacteial/fungal component to the disease. A team led out of a Mt. Sinai research group has gone over a pretty large sample of Alzheimer’s brain tissue (622 patients who died with the disease, and over three hundred control brains as well), sequencing infectious organism DNA, looking for changes in the proteome, etc. They find that aging brains in normal patients display plenty of viral signatures (as indeed is probably the case in many other tissues). But the AD samples were particularly enriched in herpesviruses 6A and 7, a result that repeated across three independent cohorts from different geographical locations (the brain tissue collections were from more than one previous effort). According to Stat, there’s a paper coming out next month from another group entirely that also implicates HHV6.

A recent epidemiology study adds real-world credence to the microbial link to Alzheimer’s. A population study in Taiwan examined more than 33,000 individuals and found that those with a herpes simplex virus infection had a 2.5-fold greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The study authors found that in those people treated with antiherpes medications, the 2.5-fold risk dropped back down to baseline.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/herpes-viruses-implicated-in-alzheimer-s-disease-64246


Alzheimer’s and Infectious Disease: For Real | In the Pipeline

 

[misshathaway]

Isn't gum disease worsened by the simple-carb content of the food in the mouth? Maybe that's why some Asian countries have it less.

I just finished "The End of Alzheimers" book. The title is click-bait. It's really about prevention and they sort of admit that they can't do anything dramatic for full-blown Alzheimers. Their approach is to take all of these research results and have the patient do the prevention or remediation for as many as possible. Gum disease and infectious diseases are in it, including Lyme disease.

The protocol for this multi-pronged approach is very complicated though and involves a ton of supplements. I would not do the supplements - wary of side effects, interactions and supplement manufacturers. The book has the answer for that of course. Buy their supplements

Still I got some info out of it. For instance I wasn't really dialed in to how much mercury you can get consuming tuna, and how it can hurt the brain. I have switched to fish with less.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Not to say that this study is without merit, but I can't help but be skeptical...

The new study, published today in Science Advances, was sponsored by the biotech startup Cortexyme Inc. of South San Francisco, California. Co-founder Stephen Dominy is a psychiatrist who in the 1990s became intrigued by the idea that Alzheimer’s could have an infectious cause. At the time, he was treating people with HIV at the University of California, San Francisco. Some had HIV-related dementia that resolved after they got antiviral drugs. Dominy began a side project looking for P. gingivalis in brain tissue from deceased patients with Alzheimer’s, and—after his work found hints—started the company with entrepreneur Casey Lynch, who had studied Alzheimer’s as a graduate student.

 

[zinger1457]

I did the dna testing with 23andme years ago and one of the health reports they provide is a test for 'Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease'. They look for variants in the APOE gene, it's suppose to indicate an increase risk in developing the disease. From what I could gather the APOE gene helps to control the levels of cholesterol and fats in the blood. They also emphasize that other lifestyle factors influence the chances of getting alzheimer's.

 

[kitesurfer2]

high THC smokeable pot is showing promise in the prevention of Alzheimer's.

 

[RAE]

Isn't gum disease worsened by the simple-carb content of the food in the mouth? Maybe that's why some Asian countries have it less.

Yes. There are lots of studies of hunter-gatherer populations around the world also, and most of them have very little dental/gum disease, or at least had very little until they started eating a more Westernized diet, with lots more simple grain-based carbs. See Weston Price's work for some examples of this.

 

[ncbill]

I did the dna testing with 23andme years ago and one of the health reports they provide is a test for 'Late Onset Alzheimer's Disease'. They look for variants in the APOE gene, it's suppose to indicate an increase risk in developing the disease. From what I could gather the APOE gene helps to control the levels of cholesterol and fats in the blood. They also emphasize that other lifestyle factors influence the chances of getting alzheimer's.

Having both copies of APOE-4 does significantly increase your risk for dementia (and, IIRC, a whole host of other nasty diseases) but only around 2% of people will have both.

 

[CaptTom]

high THC smokeable pot is showing promise in the prevention of Alzheimer's.

...Or maybe after a while you become such a stoner that people can't tell the difference when you get dementia.