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What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

quantamagazine.org

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Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#111

Post by coldtea »

ericmcer wrote: post #72
personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

I hate this because I want to believe technology and AI and will result in modern medicine where everyone has long healthy lives. The reality that just eating right, sleeping and exercising is still our best health advice is humorous and disheartening.

>I hate this because I want to believe technology and AI and will result in modern medicine where everyone has long healthy lives.

Medical technology and AI is not even close to any major improvement in life expectancy, except in much rare cases (heart transplants is one example: they're insignificant in raising overall life expectancy, as they're statistically too rare to matter).

The big majority of the improvement in life expectancy in the 20th century was from low-hanging stuff like running water, sterilization, waste disposal, and basic antibiotics, not from the high-tech transplants, DNA research, fancy drugs and so on.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#112

Post by coldtea »

nordsieck wrote: post #99
xwdv wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. You can do a lot right at home, and more frequently as you don’t need to go all the way to the gym every time.

> You don’t need a gym, those are just excuses. Sort of. Physical fitness for good health has 2 components: aerobic fitness and strength. You can improve your aerobic fitness and your upper body strength at home (rings and/or handstand pushups are enough for all but the most advanced strength athletes). Core/lower body strength is another matter entirely. People tend to quickly progress to 1x body weight squats and d…

>Without access to serious weight, lower body training is usually pretty ineffective, strength wise.

Doesn't matter, 1x or even less is still 100% enough for life expectancy and general health.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#113

Post by bawolff »

personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

Pretty easy to out-perform something that doesn't work.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#114

Post by sterlind »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #77
adamredwoods wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish gyms were less expensive, and had places, even a table perhaps, that kids and tweens could use. It would make exercise more accessible for me and my lifestyle. In university, I had an indoor track I could use, it was fantastic and had plenty of room for families and people exercising.

This should be in every city. The only way I could reliably exercise when my kids were babies was by running them in a stroller. Apart from the mental health aspect (lack of agency, no time or space to yourself), you can’t always subject your kids to the weather of the day or they’re uncooperative to the point that the run isn’t feasible. Not to mention the multitude of reasons people can’t run, from disabilities to…

even with disabilities, you can usually exercise. I can't run or really walk, but my upper body's gotten strong from pushing my chair.

I've found my health is better (physical and mental) in walkable cities than in suburbs, even though I'm not walking.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#115

Post by _a_a_a_ »

throwawaymaths wrote: post #78
personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

> High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent Not to be a sourpuss but I believe that a reasonable theory on this is that physical activity, especially activity that uses brain power, causes neuronal development which reroutes function around damage, without necessarily preventing or mitigating damage itself.

Physical surely helps but the theory of cognitive reserve suggests heavy brain use may build up a reserve of extra connections which insulate one somewhat from brain loss. I can't quote selectively as it's a big chunk of text, but here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reserve>

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#116

Post by [deleted] »

personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

[deleted]

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#117

Post by eurasiantiger »

t-writescode wrote: post #94
ericmcer wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate this because I want to believe technology and AI and will result in modern medicine where everyone has long healthy lives. The reality that just eating right, sleeping and exercising is still our best health advice is humorous and disheartening.

If we prioritized walkable cities and outdoor time in our lives, would that be so bad? I find it American culture and decades of bad city planning to be a greater harm for living healthy than most other sources of not living healthy.

Make it a misdemeanor to use inhalable nicotine products indoors and near residential buildings. Make people go for a walk to smoke or vape.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#118

Post by siftrics »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #69
personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

Not to be pedantic, but the number appears to be (up to) 88%, and the study involved women only. Incredible results but I think the specifics are worth using when they’re available. Also, there is no cause and effect here, though vascular origin dementia as noted seems almost certainly to be reduced by better cardiovascular fitness, as are many other vascular issues. Having said that, vascular and arterial lining dam…

That is a ludicrous take.

If exercise reduced risk of dementia by 99% would you still feel compelled to point out that it "doesn't appear to be the singular cause of increased wellness"?

Where's your threshold?

We literally have the solution. What you're saying, while it is technically true, seems to be more of an excuse or justification not to exercise. Perhaps I'm reading too much into your comment.

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#119

Post by DoreenMichele »

personalityson wrote: post #68

"Scientists researching possible candidates for treating Alzheimer's disease found exercise outperformed all tested drugs for the ability to reverse dysregulated gene expression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-22179-z "High fitness in middle age reduces the chance of dementia by ninety percent" https://www.ergo-log.com/high-fitness-in-middle-age-reduces-...

Exercise increases the rate at which the body "takes out the trash."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33935866

Re: What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer

#120

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

snshn wrote: post #57
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wanted to argue against this, but the strongest interpretation of what your saying could hold up to reason. Perhaps there are some kinds of prions, or other, maybe similar, infectious agents, we haven't isolated yet.

I think it's extremely likely it's caused by something either unknown or previously considered to be safe for humans. Would be nice to study groups of people and see their rates of this illness. Multi-group elimination diet, with HTMA and blood and bone marrow tested for presence of metals, oxidants, etc.

I'd like to assume epidemiologists are all over this?
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