6 ms·

Some previous discussion of an earlier paper that suggested a fungal infection may be to blame: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401344 https://news.ycom

by moyix 10y ago

Some previous discussion of an earlier paper that suggested a fungal infection may be to blame: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10401344 Very interesting to see more suggestive evidence from another group!

mouse_potato 10y ago
I've also read some autopsy reports that showed many patients had Lyme's disease.
- nonbel 10y ago
  http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations It is best to assume "everything is correlated with everything else", rather than jump on every correlation. On the other hand it is important to encourage people to notice correlations and coincidences, but realize not every one can be followed up on, and most of these that are noticed will be only weakly involved in any solution. Really all we know at this point is that Alzheimer's disease is associated with the presence of more stuff that stains with antibodies raised towards Amyloid-beta aggregates than usual. It isn't even clear whether these are a cause or a symptom, nor whether these stains are near 100% specific towards beta-Amyloid (ie as derived from Amyloid precursor protein) rather than other aggregations of beta-sheets (like any prion "infection").
  - nonbel 10y ago
    What part of this triggered a downvote? Am I not up-to-date on the current status?
    - eru 10y ago
      It's best to disregard early downvotes. There was a mythical past when Hacker News was much smaller, when (early) downvotes meant something. But that's gone.
- zzz157 10y ago
  Yes. 10/10 had it. Small sample size though, but, memory loss and dementia are late-stage symptoms of Lyme and associated coinfections. It makes a lot of sense. It seems like a simple study, to me, would be to take a bunch of early-stage Alzheimer's patients, give them Doxycycline/Tetracycline and observe them to see if they have a Jersch-Herxheimer reaction--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarisch%E2%80%93Herxheimer_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarisch%E2%80%93Herxheimer_rea...
- cstejerean 10y ago
  http://www.j-alz.com/content/study-disproves-link-between-lyme-disease-and-alzheimers http://www.j-alz.com/content/study-disproves-link-between-ly... A study looking at the rates of Lyne disease and Alzheimer's by state did not find a correlation. States where Lyme disease was more prevalent tended to actually have lower rates of Alzheimer's.
Gatsky 10y ago
That fungal paper was very tenuous. I would have rejected it if I was the reviewer.
- LionessLover 10y ago
  Like I reject your comment - because it contains no information whatsoever apart from a very short opinion. If your own work is so shoddy, what conclusions can I draw about your criticism of others? A few reasons or a link that states them should have gone with your criticism.
  - isleyaardvark 10y ago
    You could have just asked "How so?"
    - LionessLover 10y ago
      Or I could have written: > Like I reject your comment - because it contains no information whatsoever apart from a very short opinion. If your own work is so shoddy, what conclusions can I draw about your criticism of others? A few reasons or a link that states them should have gone with your criticism. But thank you for uselessly pointing out options. You know, you could have taken a walk, eaten a sandwich, did some random activity, written a comment that's actually useful, or many other things. And yet you chose to write what you did, for some inexplicable reason.
      - isleyaardvark 10y ago
        If you had just said "How so?", that would have been civil and possibly you would have learned his criticism. (It also would have followed this site's guidelines for commenting.) I don't know why you've chosen to be antagonist to both the other commenter and myself. How are you doing in your life? Are you under a lot of stress? Honest question.
  - Gatsky 10y ago
    My suggestion is to take a deep breath, then consider the net worth of your comment, then do one or all of the following: Read paper yourself. Google it. Look at the discussion in the previous HN thread, which is referenced in this thread.

by moyix 10y ago

mouse_potato 10y ago

I've also read some autopsy reports that showed many patients had Lyme's disease.

nonbel 10y ago
http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations It is best to assume "everything is correlated with everything else", rather than jump on every correlation. On the other hand it is important to encourage people to notice correlations and coincidences, but realize not every one can be followed up on, and most of these that are noticed will be only weakly involved in any solution. Really all we know at this point is that Alzheimer's disease is associated with the presence of more stuff that stains with antibodies raised towards Amyloid-beta aggregates than usual. It isn't even clear whether these are a cause or a symptom, nor whether these stains are near 100% specific towards beta-Amyloid (ie as derived from Amyloid precursor protein) rather than other aggregations of beta-sheets (like any prion "infection").
- nonbel 10y ago
  What part of this triggered a downvote? Am I not up-to-date on the current status?
  - eru 10y ago
    It's best to disregard early downvotes. There was a mythical past when Hacker News was much smaller, when (early) downvotes meant something. But that's gone.
zzz157 10y ago
Yes. 10/10 had it. Small sample size though, but, memory loss and dementia are late-stage symptoms of Lyme and associated coinfections. It makes a lot of sense. It seems like a simple study, to me, would be to take a bunch of early-stage Alzheimer's patients, give them Doxycycline/Tetracycline and observe them to see if they have a Jersch-Herxheimer reaction--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarisch%E2%80%93Herxheimer_reaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarisch%E2%80%93Herxheimer_rea...
cstejerean 10y ago
http://www.j-alz.com/content/study-disproves-link-between-lyme-disease-and-alzheimers http://www.j-alz.com/content/study-disproves-link-between-ly... A study looking at the rates of Lyne disease and Alzheimer's by state did not find a correlation. States where Lyme disease was more prevalent tended to actually have lower rates of Alzheimer's.

Gatsky 10y ago

That fungal paper was very tenuous. I would have rejected it if I was the reviewer.

LionessLover 10y ago
Like I reject your comment - because it contains no information whatsoever apart from a very short opinion. If your own work is so shoddy, what conclusions can I draw about your criticism of others? A few reasons or a link that states them should have gone with your criticism.
- isleyaardvark 10y ago
  You could have just asked "How so?"
  - LionessLover 10y ago
    Or I could have written: > Like I reject your comment - because it contains no information whatsoever apart from a very short opinion. If your own work is so shoddy, what conclusions can I draw about your criticism of others? A few reasons or a link that states them should have gone with your criticism. But thank you for uselessly pointing out options. You know, you could have taken a walk, eaten a sandwich, did some random activity, written a comment that's actually useful, or many other things. And yet you chose to write what you did, for some inexplicable reason.
    - isleyaardvark 10y ago
      If you had just said "How so?", that would have been civil and possibly you would have learned his criticism. (It also would have followed this site's guidelines for commenting.) I don't know why you've chosen to be antagonist to both the other commenter and myself. How are you doing in your life? Are you under a lot of stress? Honest question.
- Gatsky 10y ago
  My suggestion is to take a deep breath, then consider the net worth of your comment, then do one or all of the following: Read paper yourself. Google it. Look at the discussion in the previous HN thread, which is referenced in this thread.