I think it's true that neurosurgeons have a higher rate of Alzheimer's than the population. This always bothered me.
Source?
The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
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Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#32I think it's true that neurosurgeons have a higher rate of Alzheimer's than the population. This always bothered me.
Source?
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Checking eye pressure involves an instrument touching the eye, and is pretty routine.
My guy uses a machine that does a puff of air. I've never had my eyeball physically touched by anything at an ophthalmologists office.
I remember having that done one too, so I looked into it more. There are two types of "tonometry machines", non-contact and contact. The contact tonometers indent your cornea to make measurements (after your eye has been given anesthetic drops). The non-contact "air puff" machines are more common, but apparently not as accurate.
So people who are inclined to avoid direct instrument-to-eye contact can request the "air puff" method.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Source?
https://thejns.org/abstract/journals/j-neurosurg/113/3/artic...
I read the abstract (but not the whole article), but how does neurosurgery mortality compare with other employed rich people?
That is, I'd expect cases of Alzheimer deaths to be higher in the wealthy just because I'd expect they would live longer and not die of other ailments before Alzheimer's "got them".
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guy uses a machine that does a puff of air. I've never had my eyeball physically touched by anything at an ophthalmologists office.
I remember having that done one too, so I looked into it more. There are two types of "tonometry machines", non-contact and contact. The contact tonometers indent your cornea to make measurements (after your eye has been given anesthetic drops). The non-contact "air puff" machines are more common, but apparently not as accurate. So people who are inclined to avoid direct instrument-to-eye contact can request the "air…
My optometrist says there are newer and mores accurate methods that don’t require airpuff either, only imaging hardware. I can’t stand air puffs, so it was a relief to find one.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Checking eye pressure involves an instrument touching the eye, and is pretty routine.
My guy uses a machine that does a puff of air. I've never had my eyeball physically touched by anything at an ophthalmologists office.
Lucky you. I've had injections into my eyeball every few years due to a retina issue. Imagine a metal clip holding your eyelid open, and watching the tip of a hypodermic needle approaching your eyeball, held by an older ophthalmologist with shaky hands.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#37Does this line of inquiry mesh at all with the idea that "Gum disease–causing bacteria could spur Alzheimer’s" Or are they competing hypotheses? reported here in January: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18987015
My wife‘s grandmother had all her teeth pulled and replaced with implants (probably a hint towards lifelong gum issues, and PERHAPS stirring/aggravating infections), and 2 years later developed aggressive Alzheimer’s, dying about 3 years later. She was only 64 when she died. To my knowledge, she never had any neuro or eye surgery. It’s just n=1 of course, but to me the gum disease hypothesis looks way more promising.
Or perhaps infection by prions by metal dental equipment.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#38Just a clarifying point from the article: Transmissible != Communicable. Still, it makes me wonder what sort of other spooky “life forms” we can host.
(1) thanks for clarifying, that's a relief. (2) what does transmissible mean, then?
Could be wrong but communicable means you can infect other people around you. Transmissible means the disease does generalize to some extent and is caused by something replicable. That is, if they take some of the prions infecting you and inject it into someone else, it can infect someone else. Broken arms and bad genes aren’t transmissible. Lots of cancers aren’t either (meaning I can’t inject you with my cancer and infect you)
This isn’t especially surprising. It’s about on par with Alzheimer’s being caused by a microorganism. If we accept that this is true, then it follows that Alzheimer’s, as a symptom, can be transmitted. But unless there is a noteworthy vector of transmission, there’s nothing to worry about.
Speculation about eye care equipment sounds like sensationalism until tested.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#39Does this line of inquiry mesh at all with the idea that "Gum disease–causing bacteria could spur Alzheimer’s" Or are they competing hypotheses? reported here in January: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18987015
Could be correlated if it is transmissible. Gum disease could be an access vector for prions into the nerve system and the brain.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#40Just a clarifying point from the article: Transmissible != Communicable. Still, it makes me wonder what sort of other spooky “life forms” we can host.
1. If certain Prion disease(like say CJD) was Communicable with a high R0[1] by say contact, fecal matter, saliva we would see a lot of people dying, since CJD has a mortality rate of 90% within 1 year[2].
2. The level of A-beta protein(i.e. not technically prion just yet) again the deposits in 7 of the 8 patients was so severe that if this were communicable easily with a high R0, it would also be seen in the general population by now.
So one does not need to worry at least about communicability of this through those means just yet. But transmission if postulated experimentally through certain means like say dental health can mean that we might be able to put a dent in a health crisis of a greying population.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_dise...