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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

#161

Post by dennis_jeeves »

reasonattlm wrote: post #125
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 wealth…

+ 1 to this.

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

#162

Post by dennis_jeeves »

mhkool wrote: post #132

Dear Bill, to spend money wise and efficiently I suggest that you look at the work of Dr Dale Bredesen. Dr Bredesen has fantastic results with his Alzheimer treatment and has published about it. In short, his treatment cures 9 out of 10 patients with mild Alzheimer. His scientific work is solid and a larger study is currently done. Check it out!

Just glanced over a video of his. It does fit in with what I already know, so he likely has the answer. But good luck with getting it noticed. On an average people will not even investigate simple solutions. Essentially the average human mind rationalizes that it sounds too good/easy to be true. ( and Bill Gates is a very average guy outside his computer/money prowess) They would rather believe authority figures who would come up with the next designer drug which modulates the complex chemical biological pathways to offer modest benefits. Designer drugs also make for good profits.

For those who want to check similar approaches google keyword - ketogenic diets and Alzheimer’s

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

#163

Post by Mz »

Danihan wrote: post #93
jdpigeon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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…

Sure, but what causes the amyloid beta?

Recent research shows that lack of sleep increases both amyloid beta and tau. One of them increases after a single bad night. The other takes a few days of too little sleep to start spiking.

There may be other factors, but the research suggests we need to work on sleep hygiene for at risk populations. This is a non drug intervention that I can wholly get behind.

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

#164

Post by shostack »

joewee wrote: post #77
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…

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…

Fascinating. Any suggestions for how us "average Joe's" might get closer to his level of insight about anything when tackling new topics for self-driven education?

I feel like I could improve how I approach learning things in fields that are completely new to me, or where I'm far from an expert. From everything you have said and that I've read elsewhere, Gates and others at his level seem to have really honed their approach to learning and becoming able to have an informed conversation with an SME.

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

#165

Post by WalterBright »

adventured wrote: post #47
ggambetta wrote: post #6

Cynical answer: "because I'm getting old" :) Whatever the reason, this has the potential of being life-changing for a lot of people. Would love to see more billionaires involved with this kind of initiative.

That answer isn't cynical, there's no cynicism involved in the context. There's nothing wrong with pursuing something because it might affect you personally. In fact, that's a particularly tremendous reason to do something. It makes it personal, it increases motivation. There is nothing wrong with self-interest. It's why all the people posting in this thread are still alive. A given person's spending in the developed…

An awful lot of scientific progress has come about because of self-interest. See James Burke's "Connections" series.

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

#166

Post by mark-r »

nitrogen wrote: post #160
komali2 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you motivate a pharmaceutical company to share R&D they spent millions acquiring?

Require it for FDA approval

The flaw in that plan is that they'll share it in the most unhelpful way possible. See: Patents.

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

#168

Post by bo1024 »

vimy wrote: post #123
jdpigeon wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Under-reporting of Lyme actually shouldn't impact a finding of no link as as far as I can tell. Despite the under-reporting, we still know where Lyme is more or less prevalent in the US, and I believe there will be very big differences due to climate and where ticks who carry Lyme tend to live. If prevalence of Alzheimers doesn't correlate with those big differences, that seems pretty clear.

(edit) Thinking about it more, I think the anecdote you mentioned is a bit different from the parent posts. The anecdote is about a misdiagnosis (he only had Lyme, not Alzheimers), while the parent posts are about people actually having both diseases.

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

#169

Post by richk449 »

wellboy wrote: post #136
Nomentatus wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As for how a citizen scientist proceeds, go to pubmed.com and read the abstracts of at least 400,000 medical articles. I did.

You read 400,000 abstracts? That would take something about 3 years full-time no?

At an hour per abstract (seems like a reasonable amount of time to understand the abstract), I get:

400,000 hours = 50,000 days (at eight hours a day) = 208 years (at 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year)

If the abstracts wern't really read and understood, just skimmed, perhaps it would be possible to do in a tenth of the time, so 21 years.

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

#170

Post by trendia »

Mz wrote: post #163
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…

Sure, but what causes the amyloid beta? Recent research shows that lack of sleep increases both amyloid beta and tau. One of them increases after a single bad night. The other takes a few days of too little sleep to start spiking. There may be other factors, but the research suggests we need to work on sleep hygiene for at risk populations. This is a non drug intervention that I can wholly get behind.

I found a study to back this up [0]

> "Spinal taps showed that the more deep sleep people missed out on, the higher their levels of A-beta in the morning. Tau levels didn’t budge because of just one night of slow-wave sleep disruption, but people whose activity monitors indicated they had slept poorly the week before the test also had higher levels of that protein."

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/just-one-night-poor-slee...

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