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Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

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Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#101

Post by reasonattlm »

jdpigeon wrote: post #91
louprado wrote: post #76

The documentary "Under our Skin" details Alan MacDonald's breakthrough research on how Lyme disease causes Alzheimers. The 4 minute trailer is worth a watch[1], but basically Lyme disease is found in 7 or 10 brains of Alzheimers patients (small sample set). The Lyme disease spirochete literally drills countless pathways in the brain and that causes slow dementia. That spirochete also creates a biofilm which makes it…

Former Alzheimer's researcher here. I've never heard of this before. Some cursory googling only turns up a sole author publication by Alan MacDonald in Medical Hypotheses and a few news pieces by dodgy organizations like the Spirochaetal Alzheimer's Assocation. Despite what a lot of people learn in undergrad psych classes, the evidence linking amyloid beta and tau to AD is quite good and getting stronger with every n…

There is a fair amount of more recent research in support of a microbial contribution to Alzheimers, and rather than just mediating through inflammation, disrupting metabolism in ways that accelerate amyloid deposition. I believe this ties more closely with research into vascular amyloid, if you look at who is involved, which may be why you haven't encountered it.

You might see https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00336 as a sample review paper that talks about oral bacteria that are capable of spurring amyloid formation in addition to spirochetes.

Lastly one of the complaints I've heard from someone involved in the cerebrospinal fluid drainage side of Alzheimer's research is that it is really, really hard to fight the amyloid clearance by immunotherapy dominant faction to get any funding or attention for alternatives. They just don't want to hear it.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#102

Post by beamer1979 »

koolba wrote: post #53
StudentStuff wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'd be great to be able to pull glucose, hydration and more out of urine samples real time, so long as we stay away from say live telemetry to insurers or something like SmartPipe[1] it'd be enormously beneficial. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

> ... so long as we stay away from say live telemetry to insurers ... Consumers have demonstrated that they're willing to save $5-20 a month in exchange for sending gym checkins[1], daily steps counts, or digital monitoring of their driving habits[2] uploaded to their insurers. I don't think it'll ever be mandatory but I can see a day where the "discount" for agreeing to continuous monitoring and data upload is so gr…

"I don't think it'll ever be mandatory but I can see a day where the "discount" for agreeing to continuous monitoring and data upload is so great that it'd be cost prohibitive for the average consumer to not be a part of it."

I would be looking to my government to ensure such unwanted and unwelcomed intrusions into an individual's private life by private companies aren't required to achieve that. Whether that be through the nationalisation of such services or some other method. Anything else is an affront to the implied social contract which allows such private companies to profit from their activities in society.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#103

Post by leekyle333 »

The Buck Institute has been doing a lot of great research on alzheimers. They are taking a very different approach though. Tinkering with everything from diet, to infections, to heavy metals, to hormone optimization. Here is a good podcast with one of the main researchers from the Buck Institute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS7VZydS8HI

It's crazy how much focus has been on clearing amyloid without much luck at all. 224 clinical trials and only 2 drugs going through.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#105

Post by pkaye »

exelius wrote: post #81
mrfusion wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn’t Lyme disease just in the eastern us? How would 70% of worldwide alz sufferers acquire it?

Good question! That’s why we need research. We don’t know if they have a common cause or just a common mechanism of action. They very well could be the same disease; Lyme Disease is not well understood and has been implicated in all sorts of neurological diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. But the link isn’t quite obvious enough and the potential treatments, which rules out government money; and aren…

Wasn't there a vaccine for lyme disease btw? My understanding was that it was not high in demand so it was stopped being manufactured. So if lyme disease is implicated in any of this, the is already a treatment.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#106

Post by Filligree »

melling wrote: post #65
coldtea wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Immortality would be impossible without massive technological improvements that certainly would have other benefits; you can pretty well assume that both molecular nanotechnology and genetic engineering will be mature by then. I don't think we'll see anything like increased exponential progress of the kind that has been (and has already slowed down) during the industrial age. All low hanging fruit have been gathere…

Then we probably won’t cure death without large technological improvements. Problem solved. This conversation is going in circles. Has anyone brought up “death gives life meaning”? https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/stories-that-should-...

> This conversation is going in circles. Has anyone brought up “death gives life meaning”?

A platitude uttered by people who believe they have no way out, and are desperate to make themselves feel better about that. Not necessarily a bad thing, so long as there really is no way out, but catastrophic once that changes.

Destroying death will lose us something, most certainly; there are any number of great works of art and philosophy that would never have been created without the pressures and emotions it creates. But none of that, I think, can even remotely make up for the sheer awfulness of the downside.

There has to be a better solution than this creeping horror.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#108

Post by Filligree »

JamesBarney wrote: post #84
Filligree wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amyloid and tau pathways are our best hope of finding a simple solution, something we can reasonably fix with drugs. If it's something else, then chances are good it'll be far harder to fix, perhaps even requiring genetic engineering or medical nanotechnology. Finding out is still valuable, of course...

Why do you think this? Why couldn't it be as simple as stimulating glial cells?

I'm not a medical researcher. Maybe it could be.

I'm basing my statements mainly on what I've heard from people who are, and I've yet to hear about glia cells. If any easily fixable cause turns out to be the truth, then I'll be happy.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#109

Post by Filligree »

hprotagonist wrote: post #43
Filligree wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amyloid and tau pathways are our best hope of finding a simple solution, something we can reasonably fix with drugs. If it's something else, then chances are good it'll be far harder to fix, perhaps even requiring genetic engineering or medical nanotechnology. Finding out is still valuable, of course...

We’re batting 000 on drugs that target amyloid or tau, and not for want of trying.

Fortunately, we have enough resources to try multiple approaches.

I'm happy that we're doing so. For a very long time this was treated as just a fact of life, immutable.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#110

Post by pouetpouet »

skybrian wrote: post #92
joewee wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re Gates; he and his staff identify Subject Matter Experts (SME) for the topics he’s interested in. As you can imagine he has a good network. SMEs are always looking for funding, so he’ll use one of his funding vehicles to invite the SME to apply for funding or meet with the organization. By the time you meet with Bill Gates he would have read your most recent papers and competing theories and will be prepared to cha…

SME seems be "subject matter expert".

I think it's "small and medium-sized entreprises" aka SMB
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