4 ms·

First, there are antifungal drugs that pass the BBB, with varying efficacy: https://www.medicine.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/domfiles/infectiousdisease/EMT030

First, there are antifungal drugs that pass the BBB, with varying efficacy: https://www.medicine.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/domfiles/infectiousdisease/EMT030408.pdf https://www.medicine.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/domfiles/i... Second, antifungals have positively affected AD-like symptoms, though possibly through misdiagnosis.

et2o 11y ago
It's known to be pretty difficult to treat a lot of fungal infections in the CNS. The agents we have are pretty nasty, with severe side effects.
- kevinalexbrown 11y ago
  totally - but if you can effectively treat a substantial percentage, that's huge. And some effective antifungals have what many consider tolerable in the face of AD.
- solofounder7 11y ago
  I'm a hacker not a doctor but I've done some research into water purification, and here is what I've learned: The body is mostly water. The task of removing microorganisms and fungus from water has been well studied. Science knows of effective agents which are proven to purify water of micro-organisms like bacteria and also fungus. Some of these are being utilized in public water decontamination, and others while also effective are not used because they are less cost efficient to produce. Water purifying agents have a varying range of effectiveness and also and a varying range of toxicity to the human body. There are a couple of agents in particular however which are both well tolerated by the body and are also remarkably effective at decontaminating water. The one which my research indicates leads the pack in this area is a white crystalline salt named Potassium Iodide, KI. KI has been used widely by both the military and by campers in portable water decontamination. A solution of Potassium Iodide in water (known colloquially as Iodine) was a leading and apparently very effective drug during the 19th century in the United States. There are doctors today who prescribe milligram doses of KI (many many times more than the RDA) to treat a wide array of ailments but especially in dermatology. They do not typically see serious side effects although they do frequently recommend monitoring thyroid levels while utilizing higher doses.
  - hamami 11y ago
    you cannot just decontaminate your body, the human body relies on beneficial microorganisms to function. without them you'd die
    - solofounder7 11y ago
      Remarkably KI is gentle on the body while still doing a great job purifying water of the most common foul bacteria and fungus. This seems like it would make no sense until you stop to consider that idea that in earlier generations of man we ate on average a lot more marine plants than we do today (kelp in particular) which are rich in Potassium Iodide. People ate kelp because it was a "low hanging fruit" so to speak, easily harvested in great quantity from the sea. Perhaps the beneficial organisms in our gut evolved to tolerate KI so that populations could tolerate eating mostly seaweed. The Japanese still eat a lot of kelp (the average japanese male ingests more than 40mg of KI daily from seaweed), and if you crunch the statistics it looks like they may have significantly less AD among their population than we do in the west: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers-dementia/by-country/ http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers...
      - gus_massa 11y ago
        Not everybody lived nearby a sea. My family is from the north west of Argentina (Jujuy). To reach the sea you have to travel a few hundred kilometers horizontally and more than one kilometer vertically, so bringing anything from the sea was very expensive. Moreover, the iodine content of the food was very low and that's bad for your thyroid. The government mandate to add a small amount of KI to the table salt NaCl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency
  - manarth 11y ago
    This argument seems to be that "The body is mostly water. The task of removing X from water has been well studied. Therefore it's easy to remove X from the body". This seems to be a logical fallacy. Let me rephrase this argument as: "The body is mostly water. The task of removing HIV from water has been well studied. Therefore it's easy to remove HIV from the body". Just to be clear: I have no medical expertise, this is mere conjecture. But fungal infections could perhaps persist in various cells. In neurons. In spoor form. In all sorts of manifestations, where they wouldn't be affected by the same treatment that disinfects water. I don't have any expertise to say one way or the other, but I suspect that if there were a simple solution such as "just treat with Iodine, it'll kill the fungus", this discussion wouldn't be taking place.
chetanahuja 11y ago
I should have put a disclaimer that I'm not a doctor or expert in pharmaceutical research by any means but unfortunately have had to learn a fair bit about fungal infections the hard way due to a loved one having been affected. Antifungal treatments for internal infections are long (of the order of years), can be difficult to administer (some of them can only be done via IV) of uncertain efficacy and can have serious side effects. And this is for organs that don't have to overcome the BBB. Nonetheless, if some anti-fungal treatments do prove to be effective against alzheimer's it'll be an amazing advance in medicine. Probably at the level of a Noble prize for the researchers. I'd love to see that happen.

et2o 11y ago

It's known to be pretty difficult to treat a lot of fungal infections in the CNS. The agents we have are pretty nasty, with severe side effects.

kevinalexbrown 11y ago
totally - but if you can effectively treat a substantial percentage, that's huge. And some effective antifungals have what many consider tolerable in the face of AD.
solofounder7 11y ago
I'm a hacker not a doctor but I've done some research into water purification, and here is what I've learned: The body is mostly water. The task of removing microorganisms and fungus from water has been well studied. Science knows of effective agents which are proven to purify water of micro-organisms like bacteria and also fungus. Some of these are being utilized in public water decontamination, and others while also effective are not used because they are less cost efficient to produce. Water purifying agents have a varying range of effectiveness and also and a varying range of toxicity to the human body. There are a couple of agents in particular however which are both well tolerated by the body and are also remarkably effective at decontaminating water. The one which my research indicates leads the pack in this area is a white crystalline salt named Potassium Iodide, KI. KI has been used widely by both the military and by campers in portable water decontamination. A solution of Potassium Iodide in water (known colloquially as Iodine) was a leading and apparently very effective drug during the 19th century in the United States. There are doctors today who prescribe milligram doses of KI (many many times more than the RDA) to treat a wide array of ailments but especially in dermatology. They do not typically see serious side effects although they do frequently recommend monitoring thyroid levels while utilizing higher doses.
- hamami 11y ago
  you cannot just decontaminate your body, the human body relies on beneficial microorganisms to function. without them you'd die
  - solofounder7 11y ago
    Remarkably KI is gentle on the body while still doing a great job purifying water of the most common foul bacteria and fungus. This seems like it would make no sense until you stop to consider that idea that in earlier generations of man we ate on average a lot more marine plants than we do today (kelp in particular) which are rich in Potassium Iodide. People ate kelp because it was a "low hanging fruit" so to speak, easily harvested in great quantity from the sea. Perhaps the beneficial organisms in our gut evolved to tolerate KI so that populations could tolerate eating mostly seaweed. The Japanese still eat a lot of kelp (the average japanese male ingests more than 40mg of KI daily from seaweed), and if you crunch the statistics it looks like they may have significantly less AD among their population than we do in the west: http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers-dementia/by-country/ http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/alzheimers...
    - gus_massa 11y ago
      Not everybody lived nearby a sea. My family is from the north west of Argentina (Jujuy). To reach the sea you have to travel a few hundred kilometers horizontally and more than one kilometer vertically, so bringing anything from the sea was very expensive. Moreover, the iodine content of the food was very low and that's bad for your thyroid. The government mandate to add a small amount of KI to the table salt NaCl. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine_deficiency
- manarth 11y ago
  This argument seems to be that "The body is mostly water. The task of removing X from water has been well studied. Therefore it's easy to remove X from the body". This seems to be a logical fallacy. Let me rephrase this argument as: "The body is mostly water. The task of removing HIV from water has been well studied. Therefore it's easy to remove HIV from the body". Just to be clear: I have no medical expertise, this is mere conjecture. But fungal infections could perhaps persist in various cells. In neurons. In spoor form. In all sorts of manifestations, where they wouldn't be affected by the same treatment that disinfects water. I don't have any expertise to say one way or the other, but I suspect that if there were a simple solution such as "just treat with Iodine, it'll kill the fungus", this discussion wouldn't be taking place.

chetanahuja 11y ago

I should have put a disclaimer that I'm not a doctor or expert in pharmaceutical research by any means but unfortunately have had to learn a fair bit about fungal infections the hard way due to a loved one having been affected. Antifungal treatments for internal infections are long (of the order of years), can be difficult to administer (some of them can only be done via IV) of uncertain efficacy and can have serious side effects. And this is for organs that don't have to overcome the BBB. Nonetheless, if some anti-fungal treatments do prove to be effective against alzheimer's it'll be an amazing advance in medicine. Probably at the level of a Noble prize for the researchers. I'd love to see that happen.