This is the important insight. Beta amyloids, tau tangles, now angry immune cells. Maybe look into infections that provoke them all?
What we know is that certain vaccinations (Tdap, flu) predict a 40% reduced risk of dementia, and recent treatment with valacyclovir, a herpes treatment, similarly. And autopsies of Alzheimer's patients show brain infections.
What will all the amyloid biochemists do when that whole line of research is abandoned?
My understanding of one guess around e.g. annual flu shots is not so much protection from infection as frequent stimulation of the immune system being beneficial in particular for Apoe4 carriers.
E.g. from p. 329 of Lieberman's Exercised:
Although Westerners who carry the two copies of a gene called Apoe4 (a protein that transports fats in the bloodstream) are three to fifteen times more likely to get Alzheimer's in old age, elderly Tsimane with the same ApoE4 gene are less likely to show declines in cognitive performance if they suffer from many infections.
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I have heard something similar about ApoE4 carriers in Nigeria though don't have a source on hand. Basically a lot of variations of the hygiene hypothesis and possibly compatible with "angry immune cells". Definitely not a "mystery solved" though.
Unfortunately, again, the vaccines were not applied to a single population as a variable, so there’s no evidence I don’t think to see a causal link: those who seek out such shots are a somewhat unique population
This is an example of the old trope that only random controlled trials (RCTs) can demonstrate causation. It was doctrine enforced until the '90s. Nowadays, statisticians have protocols to extract a causation signal from population studies that are large enough.
That is not to claim lack of vaccination causes dementia. But it means something affected by vaccination does.
When you follow a cohort of 46,000 patients for six years, you get enough good data to draw strong conclusions. That the same numbers came out for a disjoint population of 12,000, over the same period, demonstrates it. But statistics only points you in a direction, it is not biochemistry.
Comments
This is the important insight. Beta amyloids, tau tangles, now angry immune cells. Maybe look into infections that provoke them all?
What we know is that certain vaccinations (Tdap, flu) predict a 40% reduced risk of dementia, and recent treatment with valacyclovir, a herpes treatment, similarly. And autopsies of Alzheimer's patients show brain infections.
What will all the amyloid biochemists do when that whole line of research is abandoned?
My understanding of one guess around e.g. annual flu shots is not so much protection from infection as frequent stimulation of the immune system being beneficial in particular for Apoe4 carriers.
E.g. from p. 329 of Lieberman's Exercised:
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I have heard something similar about ApoE4 carriers in Nigeria though don't have a source on hand. Basically a lot of variations of the hygiene hypothesis and possibly compatible with "angry immune cells". Definitely not a "mystery solved" though.
WOW, I hadn't seen that about vaccinations. Seems to be a good deal of info from around 2020 about this. One example is https://aaic.alz.org/releases_2020/vaccines-dementia-risk.as....
Unfortunately, again, the vaccines were not applied to a single population as a variable, so there’s no evidence I don’t think to see a causal link: those who seek out such shots are a somewhat unique population
This is an example of the old trope that only random controlled trials (RCTs) can demonstrate causation. It was doctrine enforced until the '90s. Nowadays, statisticians have protocols to extract a causation signal from population studies that are large enough.
That is not to claim lack of vaccination causes dementia. But it means something affected by vaccination does.
When you follow a cohort of 46,000 patients for six years, you get enough good data to draw strong conclusions. That the same numbers came out for a disjoint population of 12,000, over the same period, demonstrates it. But statistics only points you in a direction, it is not biochemistry.
I'm lost, people who seek out flu vaccines are a unique population?