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Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

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Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#91

Post by xwowsersx »

chownie wrote: post #86
fao_ wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think the first step would be to look it up. > Most healthy people do not need to supplement with arginine because it is a component of all protein-containing foods[15] and can be synthesized in the body from glutamine via citrulline. I do not understand how someone can wish to know something, but refuse to expend effort to obtain the information they wish to seek? I hope it would be ok for you to explain t…

This seems unfairly aggressive. GP asked what the downside is to preventatively taking l-arganine as a supplement, your quote addresses only whether it's required. In short, you can't test your own blood so you don't know when your levels may be low. If there were no downsides to constantly supplementing then what reasons may there be to not do this? That is I think the actual question.

It is unfairly aggressive and they did this twice just in this thread. The other was here:

> There's a large amount of precedence, that's why. Rather than asking the room, one would think the first step would be to obtain information and inform yourself.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36930036

I don't know why this person feels the need to roam around the conversation policing how people are engaging in it. It's incredibly obnoxious. Especially frustrating given that they do seem to have some information to share, which they could do and just omit the completely gratuitous and unwarranted hostility.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#92

Post by decremental »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #29
swalsh wrote: post #16

I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. One of the biggest side effects of long covid for me was horrible insomnia, which was killer. The insomnia is mostly gone, but I'm still not my previous cognitive self. It's terrifying to be honest.

> I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. Much more likely to just be aging. You're not too old for it.

[dead]

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#94

Post by fao_ »

xwowsersx wrote: post #91
chownie wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems unfairly aggressive. GP asked what the downside is to preventatively taking l-arganine as a supplement, your quote addresses only whether it's required. In short, you can't test your own blood so you don't know when your levels may be low. If there were no downsides to constantly supplementing then what reasons may there be to not do this? That is I think the actual question.

It is unfairly aggressive and they did this twice just in this thread. The other was here: > There's a large amount of precedence, that's why. Rather than asking the room, one would think the first step would be to obtain information and inform yourself. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36930036 I don't know why this person feels the need to roam around the conversation policing how people are engaging in it. It'…

I clearly made a point of inquiring why the behaviour was performed, it was an honest inquiry, I am genuinely curious.

For what it is worth, my context is that I have seen the behavior of asking the room, or even just throwing out conjecture to the room, without properly doing research beforehand, to be a common flaw within computer scientists and within "tech workers" as a demographic. I had to put up for a whole year with one person making up what was complete and absolute nonsense through first principle reasoning, rather than just reading a 101 Sociology book, which would have answered all his questions effectively and with some basis in research. It is also something I see commonly within the Hacker News comments -- someone will ask a generic question to people in Hacker News, rather than doing even a cursory form of searching first. I do not understand the idea implied through this behaviour, that a random tech worker will know more than people whose job is to study the questions that are being asked, and so I resolved to ask this person, taking care to be polite, why they choose to engage in this behaviour.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#95

Post by fao_ »

chownie wrote: post #86
fao_ wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think the first step would be to look it up. > Most healthy people do not need to supplement with arginine because it is a component of all protein-containing foods[15] and can be synthesized in the body from glutamine via citrulline. I do not understand how someone can wish to know something, but refuse to expend effort to obtain the information they wish to seek? I hope it would be ok for you to explain t…

This seems unfairly aggressive. GP asked what the downside is to preventatively taking l-arganine as a supplement, your quote addresses only whether it's required. In short, you can't test your own blood so you don't know when your levels may be low. If there were no downsides to constantly supplementing then what reasons may there be to not do this? That is I think the actual question.

My quote answers the question of "why don't we all supplement with L-arginine long term" with "it's in basically all protein containing-foods, so it is not necessary".

While you are right there may be individual variation, the rule of medical advice is that we cannot assume what we do not know, and preventative ingesting of a substance that is not too well understood may have unintended side-effects. Especially in the case of molecules that have been synthesized.

As my other comment within this thread states, there is a high precedence for contamination of health supplements as a whole, so in this instance preventative dosing would seem to put someone at more risk than e.g. just eating more protein.

In addition, the supplements may contain vastly higher quantities than are safe to absorb. For example, there was a recent pubmed paper describing an incident where +500mg doses of Vitamin C (which is 1/6th of the EFSA and NIH's estimates of "safe upper limit") taken daily over a long time caused kidney stone formation. This required expensive surgery to correct.

For what it is worth, as someone with a damaged and resectioned gastrointestinal tract -- the dieticians I work with prefer to solve deficiencies with eating foods that contain the given micronutrients rather than supplementing with them. One doctor told me I had a copper deficiency, he told me that taking copper supplements tends to cause gastrointestinal distress and would have been too high a correctional dose, and so his solution was to increase my consumption of dust (which is how we naturally get copper) through obeying the five second rule. This wasn't especially out of the norm. Selenium deficiencies were solved by eating tinned tuna, likewise vitamin B12 deficiencies were solved by ingesting liver occasionally, etc.

If you suspect that you are deficient in a given micronutrient, it is always better to explore that possibility with your doctor than to take high quantities of unreliably tested substances.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#96

Post by txtxtatmos »

jacquesm wrote: post #72
andy_ppp wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cautious Mouthwash Use: I was under the impression that poor dental hygiene is associated with Alzheimer's disease and dementia?

It's better to think of your body as a walking city of interlinked organisms of different species than a single organism. They need you as much as you need them. Killing off some of those symbionts can have negative effects for the other party (you). Mouthwash is indiscriminate in that it kills of a huge amount of bacteria, but some of those are actually useful.

> It's better to think of your body as a walking city of interlinked organisms of different species than a single organism. They need you as much as you need them. Killing off some of those symbionts can have negative effects for the other party (you).

> Mouthwash is indiscriminate in that it kills of a huge amount of bacteria, but some of those are actually useful.

> It's better to think of your body as a walking city of interlinked organisms of different species than a single organism. They need you as much as you need them. Killing off some of those symbionts can have negative effects for the other party (you).

> Mouthwash is indiscriminate in that it kills of a huge amount of bacteria, but some of those are actually useful.

Not true https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35946140/

Also some of those are quite harmful https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34666923/

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#97

Post by 6510 »

Metacelsus wrote: post #90
submeta wrote: post #35

[flagged]

> Nitrate-Rich Diet: Consuming foods high in nitrates, such as beetroot, leafy greens, and other vegetables, might promote the production of nitric oxide. I don't think maximizing dietary nitrate is a good idea, since the nitrite that's an intermediate in this pathway is definitely carcinogenic (forming nitrosamines).

But if your diet lacks kale, arugula, Swiss Chard, spinach, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and broccoli one might do something about it.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#98

Post by highwaylights »

6510 wrote: post #97
Metacelsus wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nitrate-Rich Diet: Consuming foods high in nitrates, such as beetroot, leafy greens, and other vegetables, might promote the production of nitric oxide. I don't think maximizing dietary nitrate is a good idea, since the nitrite that's an intermediate in this pathway is definitely carcinogenic (forming nitrosamines).

But if your diet lacks kale, arugula, Swiss Chard, spinach, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and broccoli one might do something about it.

If someone tells me kale is carcinogenic imma lose it because it does not taste good. I’m not eating this for fun you know.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#99

Post by copperx »

criddell wrote: post #67
swalsh wrote: post #16

I've noticed a cognitive decline in myself the past couple years. I'm in my mid 30's though so I assume it's more related to long covid. One of the biggest side effects of long covid for me was horrible insomnia, which was killer. The insomnia is mostly gone, but I'm still not my previous cognitive self. It's terrifying to be honest.

You might want to research Nicotinamide Riboside. I started taking it to see if it would help with painful inflammation in my hands, wrists, and knees and noticed that when I take it, not only is inflammation improved, but my sleep improved (I track with an Oura ring) and I can concentrate for longer periods of time. Might all be placebo effect, but I’m okay with that. My doctor seems to think that’s probably the cas…

It is a shame that NR is quite an expensive placebo, though. I've found similar results, but I have zero faith in it being some sort of anti aging agent in humans.

Re: Scientists may have found mechanism behind cognitive decline in aging

#100

Post by copperx »

prox wrote: post #41
amelius wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you take a lot of vitamin d, make sure you also take vitamin k. Just a random source here because I'm too lazy: https://www.balancedwellbeinghealthcare.com/are-you-taking-v... > Because vitamin D is so good at improving calcium levels, by taking it alone you could be working to increase the calcification of your arteries instead of strengthening your bones so make sure to include K2 in your vitamin D supplement re…

Please note that overtaking vitamin D is unhealthy as well. It’s a hormone and I believe taking too much is damaging to the liver. But supplemental and when having a lack of Sun is probably a good balance. But if you can be in the sun your skin can make vitamin D.

Exposing your skin to the sun also creates nitric oxide. Hypothetically, that could also help mitigate cognitive decline (?)
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