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Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

uknow.uky.edu

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Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#51

Alz is brain inflammatory response to viruses (among other foreing detritus) that got past the blood-brain barrier, so I'm not surprised.

These days I just blame everything on histomine dysfunction and marvel that the medical complex has been so reluctant to pick it up.[1] [1] https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/caution-advised-with-low-his...

Histamine and MCAS have been adopted by alternative medicine as an explanation for everything, but it’s not supported by science. Dieticians like the one you linked have been coming up with theories for how everything is caused by either too much or too little histamine for years.

MCAS is particularly over diagnosed right now. The number of patients who think they have MCAS based on TikTok and Internet forums is so bad that most doctors have no choice but to assume it’s not a real diagnosis unless the patient has actually supporting test results in their file. Usually when you ask an “MCAS” patient how they were diagnosed, you get a long story about how their vague symptoms can be explained by MCAS according to something they saw on the internet.

The saddest part of the internet MCAS phenomenon is all of the people on Reddit and TikTok who have been convinced they have MCAS and can’t understand why all of the antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers and special diets aren’t fixing their problems. The fact that they probably don’t have MCAS and histamine doesn’t explain their symptoms just can be accepted after they’ve become immersed in online MCAS communities.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#52
post #18

Today’s generations just do not get a break. Brain rot in the form of social media. Cognitive decline from possible long COVID. Constant exposure to microplastics from various sources (water contamination, water bottles, plastic wrapping, cars via tire breakdown). This timeline fucking sucks.

Yeah, nah, all that is better than drinking water with lead in it from uranium glass.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#53
post #35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the plus side, we don’t need to worry about spending our lives in an iron lung, smallpox is a non-issue, and in most of the west there isn’t much of a concern about a mother dying giving birth. Hot water can be taken for granted, as can indoor toilets. And central heating. With modern electronics and circuitry you can’t even kill yourself with a toaster in the bathtub since it will trip the central breaker. Every…

Except there’s a trend of slow reversal of the gains you speak of. Polio was diagnosed in an unvaccinated man in upstate NY (2022) [1] The anti vax movement and distrust of science has exploded since social media. > of the west there isn’t much of a concern about a mother dying giving birth. Depends on the state, or country. In the US, legality of abortion is left up to the states due to repeal of Roe v Wade by SCOTU…

You have to look at the statistics carefully. The hint in the New York story is “Rockland County”, which for these sorts of stories refers to a controlling, ultra conservative religious sect that is opposed to vaccination, amongst other things.

It’s important context because of the insular nature of these types of communities - the splash damage of a polio or measles outbreak has limited impact outside of the community.

Outside of these isolated areas, most of the slow burn is within the MAGA cult of personality, which will likely start to break and fade over the coming years, along with the pandemic memory.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#55

Fuck, I recently had Covid and I've been having trouble recalling things. Every other day or so I'll spend 5-10 seconds remembering the name of something. It's possible this happened before I got Covid, though... I don't remember!

Oof, maybe see if you can budge word, etc retrieval with ventilating/monitoring CO2, intentional breath, and by trying different hydration electrolyte balances.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not fully known but increasing evidence. Pretty stunning result is the discontinuity in all causes dementia for NHS seniors in Wales with the week of birth as the discontinuity point (week of birth is cutoff qualifier for a shingles vaccine)

The vaccine makes things better, I assume?

[deleted]

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is only partly true. There are many different factors increasing risk for Alzheimer’s which include environmental triggers that cause inflammation which can include but are not limited to viruses, bacteria, aging, arthritis, surgery, injury, etc

It's quite possible that it's environmental suppression of immunity, aging and/or degradation of the blood brain barrier that permits the viruses to make their way topside. There's some evidence that the amyloid plaques actually exhibit antimicrobial activity and may be an immune response to infection. [1] In my unsubstantiated opinion it's likely to be herpesviridae that make their way to the brain due to their affi…

> In my unsubstantiated opinion it's likely to be herpesviridae

Curious, would this be hard to verify? To a layman that sounds like something that would be easily detectable under a microscope using samples of brain.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#58
post #48
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just reading on the BBC that people were having to go overseas for critical surgeries because the NHS so woefully incompetent that people were on many years long waiting list. So maybe put "NHS excellence" on the shelf next to "Empire" as UK delusions that have long since passed. U of Kentucky is a pretty decent school, ~25k students with (from personal experience) excellent Civil Engineering and Chemistry scho…

The reason for that is around 30 - 50 years of continual gutting of the NHS, aggressive implementation of perverse incentives and anti-targets (e.g. "hospitals get less money if they fail to meet X standard of care, because they do not have enough money"), and overloading of staff duties to reduce costs (e.g. Physicians now performing duties that receptionists used to handle, the lack of work force meaning they have…

typical austerity measures. The US and the UK power holders have massive incentives to privatize healthcare and schooling, so they de-fund and starve the beast with the sole purpose of trying to get people to support laws that turn public institutions into private ones. "a government small enough to drown in the bath water"

With healthcare this is especially disastrous. In the US for example, most smaller towns don't have a hospital and many don't have any doctors whatsoever, they have to drive a hundred miles or more to get care, and we spend a fuck ton of tax money medivacing (air lifting) these people to major city centers. These places used to have hospitals, but they weren't profitable.

Then these people get disillusioned with the system, are sold the lie that private healthcare will fix all of their problems, and politicians and health corporations runaway with the bag while we citizens in the US pay more for basic healthcare than any OEC nation while also having the worst health outcomes of OEC nations on par with so called "3rd world" countries. Its genuinely pathetic.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#59
post #18

Today’s generations just do not get a break. Brain rot in the form of social media. Cognitive decline from possible long COVID. Constant exposure to microplastics from various sources (water contamination, water bottles, plastic wrapping, cars via tire breakdown). This timeline fucking sucks.

When have people ever gotten a break? At least you make it into old age without good odds of getting an axe put through your head before that like most of human history.

Re: Researchers find Alzheimer's-like brain changes in long Covid patients

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really clickbait. University of Kentucky press releases always refer to it as UK.

It is not clear from your comment why always doing it would not be clickbait-like. I am sure even the majority of Americans would assume that when the letters “UK” are used in isolation, it would mean the country and not a state university.

I meant they are not trying to trick people into clicking the link by using the term “UK” because it’s obvious from the context what they mean, since they consistently use the term.

I agree that it’s a bad headline for HN where you don’t know the context, but that doesn’t mean they chose the headline with ill intent.

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