So is this small bit of information any use for figuring out the general case?
Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
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Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#12Afaict, this is not an entirely new finding. For example, this page ( https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07771-6 ) references a 2018 article about the issue of Alzheimer's being transmitted (or rather "seeded") through growth hormone extracted from cadavers. Perhaps the new article provides additional evidence or perhaps the other article only suspected a casual link and this one proves that there is one. I h…
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Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#13My understanding was the beta-amyloid hypothesis itself is under some amount of scrutiny and may not truly explain Alzheimer's. Wonder if this finding adds more evidence for the amyloid hypothesis.
Not sure why scientists has to pin point a single cause where as you have different vectors that can cause the same disease is also plausible
Or that we've been lumping multiple different types of cognitive decline as a single disease.
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#144 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39179368 Recycled comment follows. ___________ To highlight: > The authors and other scientists stress that the research is based on a small number of people and is related to medical practices that are no longer used . Also that there is zero-reason to believe in any person-to-person spread: > The study does not suggest that forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s dise…
Another one is "nosocomial" - (disease) originating in a hospital
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#15Why isn't the procedure used anymore, since they stopped using it before this was discovered?
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#16Why isn't the procedure used anymore, since they stopped using it before this was discovered?
Because it was shown to also spread a prion disease (CJD, though not the variant kind as far as I have understood)
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#17I've often wondered if Alzheimer's is actually novel instances of prion disease.
For instance, Kuru was developed within I think a handful of generations in a population of ~20,000 with limited opportunities for transmission (only transmitted when someone dies and their family eats their brain).
If the base incidence rate for a novel prion is that high, can you explain Alzheimer's as just that? It would be sad news for pharmaceutical companies - it would render Alzheimer's as a disease in the same class as cancer. Total systems breakdowns that are low-probability but inevitable on a long enough timescale.
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#18Why isn't the procedure used anymore, since they stopped using it before this was discovered?
As the article says, there is now a synthetic hormone which is given to the patients. We don't need to extract the hormone from dead people anymore.
Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#19Why isn't the procedure used anymore, since they stopped using it before this was discovered?
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Re: Alzheimer’s cases tied to no-longer-used medical procedure
#204 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39179368 Recycled comment follows. ___________ To highlight: > The authors and other scientists stress that the research is based on a small number of people and is related to medical practices that are no longer used . Also that there is zero-reason to believe in any person-to-person spread: > The study does not suggest that forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s dise…
Don't forget nosocomial- infections acquired in a healthcare setting.