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Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

gatesnotes.com

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

#121

Post by stdgy »

Nomentatus wrote: post #118

Funny, I remember contacting the Gates foundation many years ago now about chronic illnesses and the then-new discovery of ipRGCs/pRGCs (which we will find have a critical role in Alzheimer's) and hitting a total brick wall. Paraphrasing them, "this wouldn't help the third world" - we know better now.

Bill addresses this in the piece:

I’m making this investment on my own, not through the foundation. The first Alzheimer’s treatments might not come to fruition for another decade or more, and they will be very expensive at first. Once that day comes, our foundation might look at how we can expand access in poor countries.

It's intriguing they're able to draw that line, but it makes sense if they want to keep the Gates Foundation focused.

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

#122

Post by freeflight »

Filligree wrote: post #106
melling wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> A platitude uttered by people who believe they have no way out, and are desperate to make themselves feel better about that.

Imho it's way more desperate trying to find "a way out of death" by defining it as something that could be "destroyed" (how to destroy the unexisting?), instead of simply accepting that literally nothing lasts forever, most certainly not rather fragile biological life. There's nothing "creepy horrific" about it unless you make it so.

Our biological lifespans are in large parts responsible for forming our subjective views of the universe, making us ask for a purpose of that limited existence. If we'd ever reach a state where that doesn't matter anymore, then we've most likely left our biological shells behind and reached a level of consciousness which we couldn't even imagine right now.

I'm not sure if such a state would even still be perceived by us as "being alive" and not rather as simply "existing".

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

#123

Post by vimy »

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…

Maybe there is no correlation because Lyme disease is severely underreported. A couple years ago, the CDC stated that official numbers were likely underreported by a factor of 10. From 30,000 yearly cases to 300,000 https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0819-lyme-disease.h...

There was also the case of actor/songwriter Kris Kristofferson being misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's for years. He had Lyme. This is anecdotal of course. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kris-kristofferson-misdiagnosed...

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

#124

Post by Nomentatus »

stdgy wrote: post #121
Nomentatus wrote: post #118

Funny, I remember contacting the Gates foundation many years ago now about chronic illnesses and the then-new discovery of ipRGCs/pRGCs (which we will find have a critical role in Alzheimer's) and hitting a total brick wall. Paraphrasing them, "this wouldn't help the third world" - we know better now.

Bill addresses this in the piece: I’m making this investment on my own, not through the foundation. The first Alzheimer’s treatments might not come to fruition for another decade or more, and they will be very expensive at first. Once that day comes, our foundation might look at how we can expand access in poor countries. It's intriguing they're able to draw that line, but it makes sense if they want to keep the Gate…

But note that obesity and diabetes (Alzheimer's is sometimes called diabetes 3 and called part of the metabolic syndrome) are now hitting the third world HARD. Something that was highly predictable, and which I feared and mentioned at the time.

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

#125

Post by reasonattlm »

Nomentatus wrote: post #118

Funny, I remember contacting the Gates foundation many years ago now about chronic illnesses and the then-new discovery of ipRGCs/pRGCs (which we will find have a critical role in Alzheimer's) and hitting a total brick wall. Paraphrasing them, "this wouldn't help the third world" - we know better now.

The burden of aging falls most heavily on the poor, though it has to be said that the differences between rich and poor are small in comparison to the absolute degree of harm done by aging.

It has been a disappointment to see the Gates Foundation near entirely bypass this area of research up to fairly recently, presumably because they do hold this strange view of aging being either a non-issue, or a problem of wealthy regions.

From a utilitarian perspective, nothing that goes on in the poorest parts of the world rises to the level of harm done by age-related disease. Not even close.

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

#126

Post by Chris2048 »

madshiva wrote: post #88
Chris2048 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you suggest?

Don't extend life...we discovered these things because we are older and older. I don't think that the solution is getting older. Don't know why I'm always getting down vote too. Life and his mystery.

What about the elderly people who don't have problems?

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

#127

Post by docere »

Beltiras wrote: post #40

I work for a company[1] in this space. We make software that analyses EEG recordings and predicts if the subject will develop Alzheimer's. We are currently working on Class 2 CE mark for our AD product. [1]: http://www.mentiscura.com/

Is this promising tech? EEG may be sensitive but not very specific.

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

#129

Post by Danihan »

Nomentatus wrote: post #119
Danihan wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the evidence linking amyloid beta and tau to AD is quite good and getting stronger with every new molecular paper that comes out. Sure, but what causes the amyloid beta? Why wouldn't a long-standing syphilis-like bacterial infection in the CNS cause that sort of protein buildup? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4399390/ It's a little shocking to see a "former Alzeheimer's researcher" presume that tau bu…

I.e. "But dudes, just WHY is the garbage piling up faster than it can be cleared, now?" Love your plaque line - although plaque is compensation and amyloid beta and tau are not, or not per se.

Not per se, correct.

The plaques seem almost similar to remnants of an incomplete chemical synthesis. For instance, glutamate is synthesized in the brain and is used as a neurotransmitter.

If a bacterial infection prevented glutamate synthesization (potentially by utilizing some crucial component for it's own propagation), you'd see a build-up of otherwise useful amino acids that would manifest as plaques.

The plaques should hypothetically be cleaned by neuronal autophagy but something could be throwing that off as well.

And if neurotransmitter production is degraded, of course cognition will suffer. You seem similar symptoms in Schizophrenia as well.

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

#130

Post by sctb »

madshiva wrote: post #23

no need to have Alzheimer to see these poor old guy / women that can't do anything. We should die sooner, waste less resource and enjoy more.

You've been posting a lot of uncivil and unsubstantive comments. Could you please take a look at the guidelines and start following them?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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