What causes Alzheimer's? Scientists are rethinking the answer • Hacker News Board

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

#161

Post by 90d » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:32 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #111

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.

> 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 improvemen…

Make AI. Choose next path :

(1) herculean effort to make it confirm to what they have established as politically correct.

(2) improve AI.

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

#162

Post by moloch-hai » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:34 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #111

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.

> 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 improvemen…

Having been vaccinated for Tdap recently very reliably predicts a 40% lower risk of dementia.

I gather flu vaccine has similar effect size. Nobody knows why. Ask, and people speculate about inflammation.

Having been treated for herpes lately -- valacyclovir, lately -- seems too to have outsize effect. I get all three.

People doing autopsies say brains they examine are very often laced with herpes virus and bacteria, vs. doctrine that insists nothing gets in.

US grants $2B annually to study plaque formation in transgenic mice. Approximately none of it goes for anything of value. When the amyloid boat sinks, a lot of biochemists will need to find something else to do. They would better look early.

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

#163

Post by ravel-bar-foo » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:35 AM UTC

hgomersall wrote: post #91

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.

No, we need cities and towns that are designed around active transport. Exercise should not be a "thing you do", it should just be part of life. If you want to "do exercise" it needs to be in addition to the normal every day base level of exercise everyone gets for free. That said, you don't need to wait to be given those opportunities. Look for every opportunity for unnecessary expenditure of energy - you'll find th…

This. When I lived in Europe I was getting 60+ minutes of walking every day just between work and home and lunch and work. In Korea, I get 40+ minutes to and from subway stations. Family in the US will tell me they went for a really good 30 minute walk, and the thought I'm too polite to express is "How is 30 minutes of walking special enough to tell me about?"

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

#164

Post by incongruity » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:36 AM UTC

xenospn wrote: post #127

incongruity wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d add obesity, and depression/anxiety to that list

Obesity can 100% be prevented and/or reversed. It’s not a medical problem but a cultural one.

Respectfully I disagree and science seems to be supporting that point of view as well.

But, even if you call it a cultural issue, it is still a health issue. It causes billions in additional care, shortens lifespans, is a risk factor for many other diseases. Those facts alone make it a medical problem.

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

#165

Post by can16358p » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:43 AM UTC

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.

On the other hand it makes so much sense. We're the result of hundreds of millions of evolution on this planet, and we're very optimized for the actions that we can take in nature (e.g. Walk, swim, hunt an animal/grap a fruit, eat, reproduce).

No wonder why these are good for us, because these are our true traits.

Modern medicine, on the other hand, is a few hundred years old at best and generally work as a band-aid rather than solving the root of the problems.

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

#166

Post by doctor_eval » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:44 AM UTC

90d wrote: post #161

coldtea wrote: post #111

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. 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 improvemen…

Make AI. Choose next path : (1) herculean effort to make it confirm to what they have established as politically correct. (2) improve AI.

(1) herculean effort to make it treat everyone with kindness and respect.

(2) improve AI.

(3) work out how to do both at the same time.

FTFY

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

#167

Post by SamBam » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 2:44 AM UTC

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.

Rerouting is mitigating. If the end result is lack of dementia, that's what's important. The fact that some percentage of the neurons are damaged is not a problem. The elasticity of the brain is an evolved trait, rerouting is what the brain does to keep working.

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

#168

Post by eloff » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 3:01 AM UTC

marricks wrote: post #159

eloff wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Says the guy hypocritically from his smartphone. Technology has solved so many problems. It's also created new ones. But we're way better off, there's no question of that.

> Says the guy hypocritically from his smartphone. How is it hypocritical? Opposed to any other times in human history you can’t give up on society and live a peaceful life in a community. We’re born into it along with all our families and friends. Telling someone to go off and live in the woods is a life of solitude and probably harsh run ins with the law. There is no choice nowadays and saying “ha but you live in s…

The Amish get by all right.

Seriously, if you really believe you're better off without technology, you can live that way without going and living in the woods. Saying you're better off without technology from a smartphone is hypocrisy. I double down on that.

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

#169

Post by bitwize » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 3:14 AM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #111

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.

> 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 improvemen…

Don't forget deprecating tobacco and alcohol consumption.

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

#170

Post by stubish » Sun, Dec 11, 2022, 3:16 AM UTC

can16358p wrote: post #165

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.

On the other hand it makes so much sense. We're the result of hundreds of millions of evolution on this planet, and we're very optimized for the actions that we can take in nature (e.g. Walk, swim, hunt an animal/grap a fruit, eat, reproduce). No wonder why these are good for us, because these are our true traits. Modern medicine, on the other hand, is a few hundred years old at best and generally work as a band-aid…

Exercise always seems counterintuitive. After all, things tend to wear out and break when you use them. You don't use the good scissors for most things or they won't be good when you need them. We would be a lot less grumpy if the way to build muscle was to take it easy, and you only needed to exercise if you were overbulking and needed to wear some out. So we want a pill that triggers the regenerative effects of exercise without the actual exercise. Human Growth Hormone without the problems.