Finally, a cause that can eat up the entire Gates fortune without breaking a sweat
Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
71–80 of 192 posts
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#72It's great to see more investment into this disease. When my grandma fought Alzheimer's over the span of a decade it was very striking to see that the effect of a lack of hydration and the disease itself kind of overlapped. When she had a particularly bad day we used to give her a saline IV and you could immediately notice how she cleared up and regained her brain powers after each IV. I'm not up to date on current r…
I think the toilet in general could use an upgrade... for how many years have they been built exactly the same way? Has anyone ever done a study of the flow as urine impacts the toilet and bounces back? Or as we learn more about the importance of stomach bacteria, can our toilet start to do more monitoring of the bacteria in our stomach? Love your idea of hydration monitoring and think the application is probably mor…
The toilet and the stomach bacteria rarely encounter one another, unless you throw up on a regular basis.
You're probably referring to gut bacteria, which live in your colon. It's true that a lot of research is being done towards these bacteria, and they appear to play an important role in various systems.
However, stools are usually coated in a thin layer of mucus -- which makes them a bit shiny and serves as a lubricant. It's unlikely that enough stool interacts with the toilet bowl to get much interesting data out of it. And even if it did, it would probably be contaminated by the presence of other people's stool.
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more complex than just that. At CTAD just a couple of weeks ago there was a presentation on drugs that managed to reduce AB (biomarker was inferred by a PET scan) and it did not result in increased cognition.
> (biomarker was a PET scan) A PET scan is not a biomarker. The Amyloid Beta (AB)* is the biomarker, the PET w/ tracer (such as the Pittsburg Compound Beta) are used to detected the biomarker. It's also important to note that Amyloid Beta is only part of the problem. Neurofibrillary Tangles (NFT) are the primary biomarker of Alzheimer's Dementia, and happen inside the neurons. NFTs disable to ability for neurons to c…
I'll edit for clarity, was inferred by was my thinking. I only had a second hand presentation this morning by an attendee.
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more complex than just that. At CTAD just a couple of weeks ago there was a presentation on drugs that managed to reduce AB (biomarker was inferred by a PET scan) and it did not result in increased cognition.
A simple hypothesis which could explain this might be that the plaques cause effectivelt permanent brain damage. The question is whether degenerative patterns ceased or slowed after substantial clearing of plaques from the brain. I would expect this test (and therefore the hypothesis) to fail if the plaques themselves are a byproduct rather than the cause of degradation in brain function. That said, I'm surprised I h…
Another point is that a majority of Alzheimer's patients have other neurodegenerative conditions, with vascular dementia being one of the most common. So it is reasonable to expect that you can in fact meaningfully address Alzheimer's and see little to no improvement in a patient.
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#75Heh, the blog fails to load in Firefox 57...
Switch firefox to reader mode (the book icon in the address bar), that seems to fix it.
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#76The documentary "Under our Skin" details Alan MacDonald's breakthrough research on how Lyme disease causes Alzheimers. The 4 minute trailer is worth a watch[1], but basically Lyme disease is found in 7 or 10 brains of Alzheimers patients (small sample set). The Lyme disease spirochete literally drills countless pathways in the brain and that causes slow dementia. That spirochete also creates a biofilm which makes it challenging to detect in a living patient. His research is from a decade or two ago.
Also I wonder how a citizen scientist like Gates does a deep dive on this topic a like this. There are 10's of thousands of research papers on the subject[1] and countless books.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCLwauRh2gQ [2] http://archive.sciencewatch.com/ana/st/alz2/journals/
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#77The documentary "Under our Skin" details Alan MacDonald's breakthrough research on how Lyme disease causes Alzheimers. The 4 minute trailer is worth a watch[1], but basically Lyme disease is found in 7 or 10 brains of Alzheimers patients (small sample set). The Lyme disease spirochete literally drills countless pathways in the brain and that causes slow dementia. That spirochete also creates a biofilm which makes it…
Re Gates; he and his staff identify Subject Matter Experts (SME) for the topics he’s interested in. As you can imagine he has a good network. SMEs are always looking for funding, so he’ll use one of his funding vehicles to invite the SME to apply for funding or meet with the organization. By the time you meet with Bill Gates he would have read your most recent papers and competing theories and will be prepared to challenge you on your approach. Pass his final intellectual test and you are added to his collection of SMEs.
Edit: When I had the pleasure of watching Bill Gates do this, it was one of the most impactful moments in my life. When he would question a SME on a topic he came across as knowledgeable as the SME who has dedicated years to the topic. Bill Gates literally will have read all around the topic and his mind operates like a poker player or chess player who is thinking on multiple levels. His questions are probes to see how many levels you are thinking on, and I think it also informs him of other angles. He’s a brilliant guy.
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#78The documentary "Under our Skin" details Alan MacDonald's breakthrough research on how Lyme disease causes Alzheimers. The 4 minute trailer is worth a watch[1], but basically Lyme disease is found in 7 or 10 brains of Alzheimers patients (small sample set). The Lyme disease spirochete literally drills countless pathways in the brain and that causes slow dementia. That spirochete also creates a biofilm which makes it…
But isn’t Lyme disease just in the eastern us? How would 70% of worldwide alz sufferers acquire it?
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#79I remember that ultrasound[0] was very promising a few years back. Does anyone have any more recent info?
[0]: http://www.sciencealert.com/new-alzheimer-s-treatment-fully-...
Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's more complex than just that. At CTAD just a couple of weeks ago there was a presentation on drugs that managed to reduce AB (biomarker was inferred by a PET scan) and it did not result in increased cognition.
A simple hypothesis which could explain this might be that the plaques cause effectivelt permanent brain damage. The question is whether degenerative patterns ceased or slowed after substantial clearing of plaques from the brain. I would expect this test (and therefore the hypothesis) to fail if the plaques themselves are a byproduct rather than the cause of degradation in brain function. That said, I'm surprised I h…
They used several techniques that clear beta amyloid from the brain.(antibodies and ultrasound). And they've have little if any effect on cognition. I'm starting to think beta amyloid is a red herring, or maybe just important in the prodromal stages of the disease.