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How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

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Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#21
post #13

Hasn’t Alzheimer’s been referred to as diabetes type III? It’s inflammation of the brain, and eating a low inflammation diet (low carb, no sugar, fasting) is the best thing one can do to drastically reduce getting it.

I thought that it was also strongly associated with gum disease: https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-gingivitis-disease...

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#22
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

think that scarce research funding should flow their way because giving any to other possibly-wrong approaches would be wasteful I heard someone recently tell me how using science to form views on topics (social/psychology/etc) is dangerous, because science is really about funding. AND large donors/entities who can fund science often pick science research projects that sound cool and sexy. They may not be pushing any…

Science is funded: 1. by desire for profit 2. by desire for political gain 3. by charitable impulses by people with money to spare Each has its problems and advantages. Best if we allow all three.

Which of these categories does the National Science Foundation fall under?

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#24

I have the impression when we read stories like this that it's not that the leading researchers in the field are hostile to other ideas, as such, but that they are not very well versed in economics and thus think that scarce research funding should flow their way because giving any to other possibly-wrong approaches would be wasteful, and likewise abandoning or discounting the predominant theory would be a terrible m…

> sunk cost fallacy

...doesn't really make sense here.

Let's say it takes 20 years and 5+ institutions to fully explore a single avenue of research.

If you're 15 years into that research and you think there is a chance that you'll reach a breakthrough in 5 years, you're much more inclined to want your (and the other 4+ institutions) to pursue it for 5 more years rather than starting over.

That's not sunk-cost fallacy. It's more like "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" or perhaps confirmation bias (the inertia the scientists felt to discard their conclusions about the causes and treatment pathways for Alz).

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#25
post #5

Unfortunately true for most scientific communities and the reason why the current academic system is badly broken and talented young minds decide to quit academia before even submitting a dissertation.

Talented young minds are mostly quitting because of terrible pay, inexperienced/cruel supervisors, long hours, gambling on tenure, and opportunities in private industry.

The groupthink and publishing pressure are also problems, but they're very secondary to hellish career conditions.

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#26
post #10

This is another example of group-think in scientific research. The same thing happened for decades where low fat diets were supposed to help for heart disease but that has only recently been reversed after decades of indoctrination. This happens all throughout scientific research, where science is supposed to be immune to this, but it's obviously not. So many things we take as gospel, only to be reversed decades late…

> “ The same thing happened for decades where low fat diets were supposed to help for heart disease but that has only recently been reversed” Oh did not know that. Do you have reference material?

The original health warnings were not about fat, but about meat. That ran into the meat-packing lobby, and then everything after had to be couched in terms of fat.

There has never been evidence that fats were bad, as such, just meat as produced in the US, and sugar. But no one was allowed to say so.

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#27
post #4

I have the impression when we read stories like this that it's not that the leading researchers in the field are hostile to other ideas, as such, but that they are not very well versed in economics and thus think that scarce research funding should flow their way because giving any to other possibly-wrong approaches would be wasteful, and likewise abandoning or discounting the predominant theory would be a terrible m…

think that scarce research funding should flow their way because giving any to other possibly-wrong approaches would be wasteful I heard someone recently tell me how using science to form views on topics (social/psychology/etc) is dangerous, because science is really about funding. AND large donors/entities who can fund science often pick science research projects that sound cool and sexy. They may not be pushing any…

What definition of “science” is this?

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#28
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Science is funded: 1. by desire for profit 2. by desire for political gain 3. by charitable impulses by people with money to spare Each has its problems and advantages. Best if we allow all three.

Which of these categories does the National Science Foundation fall under?

#2, as it is funded by politicians.

Re: How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure

#30
post #13

Hasn’t Alzheimer’s been referred to as diabetes type III? It’s inflammation of the brain, and eating a low inflammation diet (low carb, no sugar, fasting) is the best thing one can do to drastically reduce getting it.

I thought that it was also strongly associated with gum disease: https://www.alzheimers.net/alzheimers-and-gingivitis-disease...

Yes, which drove suspicion of a bacterial link.

It could be quite complex -- bacteria helping herpes, or herpes helping bacteria into the brain, and the brain responding to one or the other or both with inflammation and plaques. And maybe something else involved, like inadequate or excess dietary intake of something like sugar, or trans fats, or PCBs, or glyphosate.

We need to explore many, many possibilities.

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