21–30 of 243 posts
In many scientific research projects the same dangerous theme keeps surfacing: monolithic thinking, with “no alternatives allowed”. I feel this is very detrimental to both scientific progress as well as to the broader society.
Tylenol
As someone who has a close relative diagnosed with this disease, I'm always on the lookout for new information. So this is interesting. One area I'm particularly interested in is the correlation to diabetes. It's a factor that I found being mentioned here and there in some references. In the immediate case that interests me, there's a 20+ year history of type 2 diabetes and a recent scan showed severe bilateral hypoc…
in some medical circles, alzheimers is referred to as "type 3 diabetes"
Interesting to find out it has it's own wiki page
could be prions from eating meat, could be genetic... it's likely similar to "what causes cancer?"
Perhaps there are some kinds of prions, or other, maybe similar, infectious agents, we haven't isolated yet.
There's a couple clinical trials with various variations of young blood or blood plasma being given to Alzheimer's patients. Should be interesting to see how that goes.
As someone who has a close relative diagnosed with this disease, I'm always on the lookout for new information. So this is interesting. One area I'm particularly interested in is the correlation to diabetes. It's a factor that I found being mentioned here and there in some references. In the immediate case that interests me, there's a 20+ year history of type 2 diabetes and a recent scan showed severe bilateral hypoc…
Sugar.
I think the correlation is more so to sugar.
I too had a loved one with Alzheimer’s, and there was definitely strong reason to believe sugar was a contributing factor.
Decreased proteins, not amyloid plaques, tied to Alzheimer's disease - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33096228 - Oct 2022 (3 comments)
A Positive Amyloid Trial, Finally? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33010078 - Sept 2022 (49 comments)
Faked Beta-Amyloid Data. What Does It Mean? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32224823 - July 2022 (168 comments)
Two decades of Alzheimer’s research was based on deliberate fraud - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32212719 - July 2022 (298 comments)
Potential fabrication in research threatens the amyloid theory of Alzheimer’s - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32183302 - July 2022 (256 comments)
Alzheimer’s amyloid hypothesis ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31828509 - June 2022 (307 comments)
Tau PET imaging beats amyloid-based approach in battle against Alzheimer’s - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21970903 - Jan 2020 (15 comments)
How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21911225 - Dec 2019 (382 comments)
Robert Moir, 58, Dies; His Research Changed Views on Alzheimer’s - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21859212 - Dec 2019 (3 comments)
Why Do We Keep Investing in Anti-Amyloid Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19496402 - March 2019 (1 comment)
Alzheimer’s Drug Failure Leaves Scientists Seeking New Direction - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468987 - March 2019 (76 comments)
Scientists discover why many Alzheimer’s drugs fail, identify one that may work - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18030200 - Sept 2018 (9 comments)
The amyloid hypothesis on trial - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17618027 - July 2018 (43 comments)
Is the Alzheimer's “Amyloid Hypothesis” Wrong? (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17444214 - July 2018 (109 comments)
Researcher says we have Alzheimer's wrong - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9509808 - May 2015 (27 comments)
An Outcast Among Peers Gains Traction on Alzheimer's Cure - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4766983 - Nov 2012 (11 comments)
As someone who has a close relative diagnosed with this disease, I'm always on the lookout for new information. So this is interesting. One area I'm particularly interested in is the correlation to diabetes. It's a factor that I found being mentioned here and there in some references. In the immediate case that interests me, there's a 20+ year history of type 2 diabetes and a recent scan showed severe bilateral hypoc…
> One area I'm particularly interested in is the correlation to diabetes. Sugar. I think the correlation is more so to sugar. I too had a loved one with Alzheimer’s, and there was definitely strong reason to believe sugar was a contributing factor.
I'm fine with most researchers pursuing a particular direction, but I get concerned when incentives align that provide a significant pressure for them to research what they wouldn't naturally want to research. It seems like there should be a distribution of research directions, not everyone in lockstep. It's hard to gauge from the outside to what degree that is happening in our research institutions today.
If the fundamental problem is misallocation of research dollars, then that's what should be tackled first. I'd vote to do something like a git bisect and isolate the failures first. The scale of the failures suggests that the problems go back to the beginning. So I'd start by halving the funds that go to the big players and distributing the remainder amongst smaller groups and individuals trying a wide array of different approaches.
That said, I'd predict that as theory and simulation improve, especially in areas like big data, machine learning and AI, strong correlations will be found soon (probably within 5 years, certainly 10). They'll probably discover something that the article hints at, that the problem is actually inside cells and that the amyloid protein is a symptom (not a cause). It's probably something like a subtance in food confusing the immune system or a multi-cause effect related to living a lifetime under acute stress far above and beyond what we'd encounter while living in a hunter-gatherer society, or simply that we get no exercise compared to what our bodies evolved for so maybe the cellular repair mechanisms generated by our muscles aren't there to repair the nervous system (no blame here - it's hard for older folks to get enough exercise when they're hurting).
All wild speculation on my part as a computer geek who doesn't know the first thing about medicine, I'm the first to admit!