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Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

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Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#51

As someone who gets cold sores this worries me. I know when I am super stressed because a cold sore will begin to appear on my lip. It's always there but stress allows it to replicate, all parts of my immune system are not able to cope during stressful events. I hope this doesn't mean I'm at risk for Alzheimer's disease. At least it's now known when people sleep it clears out beta-amyloid proteins in their brains. No…

My doctor told me to take Lysine 500mg per day to prevent them. You have to take it everyday forever, but it works really really well. Surprised it's not a more well known treatment. I only found out about it a couple years ago. Good luck!

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#52
post #28

This is not surprising. At least one study [1] showed 85% of people's brains are PCR-positive for at least HHV-6. It is also important to keep in mind that herpesviruses have evolved with us (and many other species) and in some ways are considered part of our normal flora. They may also play an important role in the proper development of our immune system. The data in this paper is suggestive (and complicated!!), but…

People commonly take acyclovir for simplex 1 & 2. Does that suppress this virus? Can any of these common drugs pass the blood-brain barrier? Might other herpes strains be involved? Zoster (chicken pox)? Epstein-Barr (mono)? Kaposi's Sarcoma/HHV8?

Acyclovir improves outcomes in HSV encephalitis [0], but does not completely cure it or prevent long-term damage in all patients.

The worst side effect of encephalitis is memory impairment:

> The most common and most disabling complication of herpes simplex encephalitis in our patients, and in other studies,9 10 20-24 was memory impairment, which especially affected short term memory. Occasionally remote memory is more severely affected than anterograde memory.

[0] https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/63/3/321

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#53
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safari's "Reader Mode" also does this.

You can also automatically enable "Reader Mode" for a single domain or all domains by pressing the reader mode button for like 2 seconds. Which is something I just recently discovered. I like this feature a lot on my iPhone. It can also be automatically enabled on macOS in the same way.

Thanks, this is useful to me.

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#54
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, which rule is at issue here?

This site is for substantive, intellectually interesting discussion. The guidelines aren't rules (or else that's what they'd be called), they're there to help guide us in that direction. When commenters repeatedly post unsubstantive comments from which we don't stand to learn anything, that's not using the site as intended. If there isn't any insight in your comment, don't post it.

Not arguing with this, albeit subjective, logic, just trying to understand what's going on in this instance. How should I have expressed the insight that, "Even prior to Alzheimers, getting mentally limited as we age might be a result of an accumulation of viruses in the brain, some of which might be obtained through sexual exposure?" -- except more succinctly?

I am still not sure what is objectionable in this comment. I post in good faith, and I expect especially the mods will uphold the guideline to read a comment in the strongest plausible interpretation.

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, my god. Is there a browser extension or a third party website or anything out there that does this for all websites? I haven't had much luck, but that's partially because some sites have chosen to make themselves unusable without javascript enabled. NPR, thank you for this subdomain <3

Safari's "Reader Mode" also does this.

It is also often useful to get rid of the "you've used up your 10 articles for the month" messages that obscure article text.

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#56
post #42

The study referenced in the article says they found HHV-6 in normal brains but there was "increased HHV-6A and HHV-7 in brains of subjects with Alzheimer’s disease" [1]. So I would say that is surprising and worth noting. [1] https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(18)30421-5

It may be worth noting but it also could very easily be a mistake of identifying an effect as a cause. Once the body is unhealthy all kinds of organisms use that opportunity to stake a claim.

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#57
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site is for substantive, intellectually interesting discussion. The guidelines aren't rules (or else that's what they'd be called), they're there to help guide us in that direction. When commenters repeatedly post unsubstantive comments from which we don't stand to learn anything, that's not using the site as intended. If there isn't any insight in your comment, don't post it.

Not arguing with this, albeit subjective, logic, just trying to understand what's going on in this instance. How should I have expressed the insight that, "Even prior to Alzheimers, getting mentally limited as we age might be a result of an accumulation of viruses in the brain, some of which might be obtained through sexual exposure?" -- except more succinctly? I am still not sure what is objectionable in this commen…

[deleted]

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#58

As someone who gets cold sores this worries me. I know when I am super stressed because a cold sore will begin to appear on my lip. It's always there but stress allows it to replicate, all parts of my immune system are not able to cope during stressful events. I hope this doesn't mean I'm at risk for Alzheimer's disease. At least it's now known when people sleep it clears out beta-amyloid proteins in their brains. No…

You could try eating some licorice. Don't overdose!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rheila-ammonium-chloride-lozenges-s... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4216581/

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know your situation, but if you don't already, you should get an RX for Valtrex or some other anti-viral. You can usually take it _before_ the cold sore appears if you can tell it's about to (swelling, stress, etc...) – and it can and often entirely suppresses the external appearance for most people.

Thats's interesting but I'm referring to a cold sore not the genital or other types. As annoying as it is I can live with it I was just worried it was the type that raised the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Cold sores are herpes. Having an open sore makes it much more likely for you to transmit the virus to others.

Re: Researchers Find Herpes Viruses in Brains Marked by Alzheimer's Disease

#60
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dude, that seems insane to me. Maybe you haven’t ever dived into the possible side effects of anti virals. But maybe you should? The risk/reward ratio of such a drug for cold sores is extremely poor.

Are we thinking of the same drug? Because Valtrex is pretty safe as long as your kidneys are normal and you drink enough water every day. I take 500 mg daily to prevent 5 to 10 (at least!) cold sores per year. My quality of life is so much higher with this drug (imagine not being able to be intimate on like half of all your dates...) For people like me who get cold sores at the drop of a hat (or shaving or even a sha…

The more disturbing side effects are rare, but very very serious. I would consider the drug for, say, shingles. But not a chance for a cold sore that’s nothing but a minor nuisance for a few days:

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/valtrex-side-effects.html

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