Infectious Theory Of Alzheimer's Disease Draws Fresh Interest

Telly

Telly

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I thought that this was an interesting and unusual article:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...ry-of-alzheimers-disease-draws-fresh-interest


It's an idea that just a few years ago would've seemed to many an easy way to drain your research budget on bunk science. Money has poured into Alzheimer's research for years, but until very recently not much of it went toward investigating infection in causing dementia.
But this "germ theory" of Alzheimer's, as Norins calls it, has been fermenting in the literature for decades. Even early 20th century Czech physician Oskar Fischer — who, along with his German contemporary Dr. Alois Alzheimer, was integral in first describing the condition — noted a possible connection between the newly identified dementia and tuberculosis.
If the germ theory gets traction, even in some Alzheimer's patients, it could trigger a seismic shift in how doctors understand and treat the disease.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting, the article mentions neurosurgeons and Alzheimer’s. My kid’s best buddy in high school whose dad was a neurosurgeon, who also was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years back. This guy always trailed me for back to school night for parents, he’s not old, he’s and his wife are both Indian doctors, so that means he consumes a fair amount of turmeric but I guess it didn’t help. So my theory that turmeric helps with inflammation of the brain may not be correct at all.
 
Going through what I could understand of the journals at our local medical school's library, I came to the belief that dementia was caused by a form of inflammatory response caused by something that got through the blood-brain barrier.

My Mom had several serious childhood infections...then was diagnosed with a non-Alzheimer's form of dementia around age 50.

Though, it was clear years earlier that something was wrong with her.
 
The article ended with the analog to ulcers. We grew up thinking most ulcers were from "stress" and to treat them, change diet and get rid of acid.

And then, bam, it turns out it is a bacteria.

We had a friend die from a related dementia. She was a surgical nurse. One has to wonder...
 
Both uncles died from Alzheimers. Then their primary caregivers - the aunts - turned up with it.

I have long suspected it is contagious. Bad news for the many, many caregiver spouses.
 
I had a good friend with Alzheimer’s who I spent a lot of time with the last few years of her life. Doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling if it’s germ related.
 
JoeWras said:
The article ended with the analog to ulcers. We grew up thinking most ulcers were from "stress" and to treat them, change diet and get rid of acid.

And then, bam, it turns out it is a bacteria.

We had a friend die from a related dementia. She was a surgical nurse. One has to wonder...
Click to expand...

Not to side-track from the topic, but not all GI ulcers are caused by bacteria. I don't know percentages, but some are caused by Helicobacter pylori bacteria, some by overuse of Nsaids, and others are idiopathic. The idiopathic ones do seem to follow a family history of ulcers. That's how I got mine.

Now back to Alzheimer's.....
 
A very special man by the name of Dr. William Walsh has been studying mental health disorders and how to treat them. He wrote an amazing book called Nutrient Therapy, which has information that literally cured my wife's bipolar 1. Turns out, there's a disorder called Pyroluria that's very easy to test for, that causes a B6 and Zinc deficiency in your body. After she started to supplement with these 2 (and P5P) her symptoms are GONE. Seriously. Life changing. It's likely the cause for the vast majority of mental health issues in the world, but it isn't widely known about and is generally not accepted, which is total BS. Anywho...

In chapter 9, he covers Alzheimer's Disease. While they're still learning about this terrible disease, they have made some progress. Since I'm such a nice guy, I'll type up the last few paragraphs of the chapter:


The Case for Metallothionein

Two separate autopsy studies have reported severe deficiency of MT(metallothionein) protein levels in deceased AD patients. MT proteins have several protective functions in the brain including the following:
Preventing toxic metals from passing the blood-brain barrier
Regulation of copper levels
Powerful antioxidant action against free radicals

The protective properties of MT depend on ample amounts of glutathione and selenium, and I often refer to these antioxidants as the Three Musketeers. Gene expression of MT is zinc dependent, and most AD patients are depleted in zinc. MT proteins are far more powerful than selenium, coenzyme Q10, vitamins C and E, and other antioxidants that have been used in experimental AD therapies. In 2007, I received a US patent for an MT-Promotion formulation for the treatment of AD. This formulation is comprised of 22 biochemical factors known to enhance the gene expression and functioning of MT. The treatment is a two-step process: normalization of plasma zinc levels followed by MT-Promotion therapy. A reliable caretaker is essential for treatment compliance since the AD patients may forget to take the capsules or take them repeatedly the same day. This treatment has been provided to more than 100 AD patients, resulting in many reports of improvement.

The first case involved an elderly Minnesota woman who had been diagnosed with AD and was a resident in a health care facility in the year 2000. She no longer remembered her grandchildren and was reported to have lost her sparkly and enthusiasm for life. After two months of MT-Promotion therapy, the family reported a partial return of memory and recognition of her grandchildren. They added that her irritability and malaise had disappeared and she wanted to go shopping. Her mental functioning remained fairly stable for the last seven years of her life.

Encouraged by this case history, we provided MT-Promotion therapy to increasing number of AD patients. In 2007, researcher Aditi AGulibani and I reviewed the progress of the first 60 AD patients who received MT-Promotion therapy. We learned that approximately 70% of the families reported a partial return of memory followed by stable mental functioning the continued for several years. In collaboration with Dr. John Crayton, CANTAB system testing was performed before and after treatment for dozens of patients, and in most cases, the data confirmed the reports of improved memory and stable cognitive function. Several of the improved patients were eventually told that they had been misdiagnosed, apparently since they hadn't deteriorated and died. Diagnosis of AD is preliminary prior to autopsy, so we cannot be certain that all of these patients actually had AD. It's also possible that some of the nonresponders had Lewy body disease or vascular dementia and not AD. In addition, the absence of a blinded control study means that the MT-Promotion approach must be regarded as unproven. Still, the positive reports from the first 100 persons treated with the MT-Promotion protocol suggests this approach is promising and worthy of additional study.
 
Vascular dementia, I’ve heard a lot about this, but don’t really know exactly what it is. My husband’s best friend MIL has this
 
"Norins is quick to cite sources and studies supporting his claim, among them a 2010 study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery showing that neurosurgeons die from Alzheimer's at a seven-fold higher rate than they do from other disorders.

Another study from that same year, published in The Journal of the American Geriatric Society, found that people whose spouses have dementia are at a six-times greater risk for the condition themselves.

Contagion does come to mind."

Holy crap!
 
candrew said:
"Norins is quick to cite sources and studies supporting his claim, among them a 2010 study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery showing that neurosurgeons die from Alzheimer's at a seven-fold higher rate than they do from other disorders."
Click to expand...


Hmm... not sure how to parse this. Does this mean that the study found that neurosurgeons die from AD at a seven-fold higher rate than other conditions like cancer or heart disease? Or does it mean that they are 7 times more likely than non-neurosurgeons to die from AD? I would guess it's the latter, but the wording sounds like it's the former.
 
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Fedup said:
Interesting, the article mentions neurosurgeons and Alzheimer’s. My kid’s best buddy in high school whose dad was a neurosurgeon, who also was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years back. This guy always trailed me for back to school night for parents, he’s not old, he’s and his wife are both Indian doctors, so that means he consumes a fair amount of turmeric but I guess it didn’t help. So my theory that turmeric helps with inflammation of the brain may not be correct at all.
Click to expand...

Or he might have gotten it even earlier if he hadn't eaten lots of turmeric, or it didn't have the preventative effect in him because of a particular quirk of his metabolism....

Remember, the plural of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "data". ;)

Seriously though, sorry about your friend.
 
The Cosmic Avenger said:
Yes, vascular dementia is basically when you have a series of small strokes and they cause dementia.
Click to expand...

From what my friend told me, her mom tried to climb out of a window, my dad had stroke and he was paralyzed and used cane. I doubt that he could climb out a window. I admit, I don’t see her mom, she’s in nursing home in Ireland, so I don’t know what state she’s in.
 
The infectious theory of Alzheimer's is interesting, but my guess is that the insulin resistance/diabetes hypotheses will be proven to be more accurate eventually. In fact, some researchers now refer to Alzheimer's as "Type 3 Diabetes". Here is a link to an article with more information about that.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/

A quote from the Conclusions section of the article:

"Altogether, the results from these studies provide strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that AD represents a form of diabetes mellitus that selectively afflicts the brain."

If this turns out to be accurate, the good (or at least somewhat encouraging) news is that people can have some influence over whether they ultimately develop Alzheimer's, through lifestyle choices made earlier in life, especially diet and exercise.
 
I did research for 4 years at one of the Alzheimer's Research Centers in the 1990's . We use to joke that if AD was infectious, we'd all be on the memory unit together. Not sure it is funny now.......... I agree though, we know so little about Alzheimer's despite decades of research.
 
RAE said:
The infectious theory of Alzheimer's is interesting, but my guess is that the insulin resistance/diabetes hypotheses will be proven to be more accurate eventually. In fact, some researchers now refer to Alzheimer's as "Type 3 Diabetes". Here is a link to an article with more information about that.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/

A quote from the Conclusions section of the article:

"Altogether, the results from these studies provide strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that AD represents a form of diabetes mellitus that selectively afflicts the brain."

If this turns out to be accurate, the good (or at least somewhat encouraging) news is that people can have some influence over whether they ultimately develop Alzheimer's, through lifestyle choices made earlier in life, especially diet and exercise.
Click to expand...
You beat me to it.
 
One possible explanation for a spouse/caregiver being 6 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s would be environmental. They are living in the same house, presumably eating the same things.
 
Ted Talks has many excellent short presentations on Alzheimer's, geared to real life dealing with the disease, the workings of the brain and the the near time studies that are most likely to succeed... (technical but delivered in an understandable manner.).

I learned more about the practical aspects of Alzheimer's and the probable future, than all of the studying I've been doing over the past three years.

Good for sufferers and caregivers.
 
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Another recent Time Magazine article (Sept 24) about the development of gene (stem cell) science and the potential effect on health.

Scientists Are Discovering New Treatments With Stem Cells | Time

While this subject will pass and be forgotten here, it may be THE most important factor to influence lives in the coming years.
too late for some of us, but if it receives Federal funding, this could be a life or death possibility for some who post here, and almost certainly for today's children.

Just something to put into the back of your mind, for future reference.
 
I have Vascular Dementia from 58 years worth of damage to my small blood vessels in my brain (and elsewhere) from the effects of diabetes. I have been diabetic since age 6 and am now 64 years old. The Vascular Dementia has manifested itself as damaged short term memory and retrieval aphasia, which is difficulty in remembering the correct word.

Many people say to me, Oh, I have that! It's much more severe in my case than just having a word on the tip of your tongue that you can't recall.

Dementia is brain damage and vascular means related to blood vessels.

It's a common symptom in long-term Type One diabetes.

Mike D.
 
audreyh1 said:
One possible explanation for a spouse/caregiver being 6 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s would be environmental. They are living in the same house, presumably eating the same things.
Click to expand...

Maybe there are studies involving caregivers in a medical setting for Alzheimer's patients...? That would make it more definitive...
 
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