Live data from Hacker News

Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

medicalxpress.com

41–50 of 205 posts

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A broken clock is right two times a day.

A stopped clock is right twice a day. A broken clock could potentially never be right, like if it's perpetually 10 minutes behind.

That's not a broken clock, that's a clock that's set to the wrong time. Unless it remains 10 minutes behind, even when you set it 10 minutes forward, which would be a great prank gift.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#42
post #40

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

What kind of fat is it? Like is it possible to avoid by avoiding too much fat?

Too early to know for sure but I'm going to say it's very unlikely, the relationship between diet and body composition is rarely so straight forward.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#43
post #8

My aunt started showing symptoms of Alzheimer's. My grandfather passed from it. Is there any thing to do in order to prevent or delay the disease?

This is a shot in the dark.

My dad passed from dementia. That’s the best diagnosis we got. He wouldn’t go in under an MRI machine.

He had horrible , infected teeth. They were badly infected.

There’s linkage of poor oral hygiene and Alzheimer’s.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/good-oral-healt...

If I had know this sooner, I would have pushed harder for him to have those bad teeth extracted and had him start using a water pik.

I worry that what he died of was preventable.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#44

GLP1 analogs could help. They can cross the blood–brain barrier and stimulate the GLP1 receptor in the brain.[1] There is also research showing improvement in Alzheimer's disease symptoms. [2] [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11931352/ [2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221287782...

GLP-1s definitely cross the blood-brain barrier - work by affecting the GABAergic CNS and making you not hungry so you stop eating and lose weight. They don't independently do anything to make you slimmer. Basically what you're suggesting is people lose weight, which, I agree.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it does boost that hypothesis, what then? Are there things you can do aside from the basic focus on diet, exercise, and sleep?

I assume: avoid sugar.

I think that would be covered by focus on diet and sleep.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I am rich enough to have a down payment for a Bay Area house I’ll be tremendously in debt. But that wouldn’t put me in the same boat as someone with oodles of credit card debt. I’m guessing in endurance athletes it’s there because it’s about to be used. In the obese it’s there because they’re running out of places to put fat.

Right - but even then, if a super fit endurance athlete stops exercising, they don't immediately become diabetic. The upstream cause (what biochemical stimulus is driving the fat deposition?) is probably where the key insight lies.

Well yeah. You’re measuring the output to a multi-variate function. There should be no expectation that this one output drives other occasionally correlated outputs to other functions.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#49
post #34

So, is this why fasting sometimes seems like a solution? Edit: Oversimplified, but: Less, calories, less fat? Excess calories, more fat?

Fasting seems like a solution because in the fasted state your body doesn't need to produce insulin. Your body needs insulin to push fat into cells. Your pancreas gets a break, and perhaps sensitivity improves when you go on an extended insulin-free holiday.

Except there's literally a result out this week linking fasting (specifically 16+ hour intermittent fasting) with a 91% increase in cardiovascular disease deaths, which if it holds up would utterly swamp any incremental improvements to alzheimers risk.

No free lunch in personal health decisions, alas. Really the only good advice is stick to well-established science, be healthy in general, avoid internet advice, and don't sweat the small stuff.

Re: Root cause of Alzheimer's may be fat buildup in brain cells, research suggests

#50
post #40

As a former Alzheimer's researcher, this is a big fucking deal. It puts together a lot of clues (APOE risk, microglia) and finds a theory that makes a lot of sense. All around the world, there are labs pulling late nights trying to figure out how to drug this.

What kind of fat is it? Like is it possible to avoid by avoiding too much fat?

[flagged]
Post reply on HN