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My wife‘s grandmother had all her teeth pulled and replaced with implants (probably a hint towards lifelong gum issues, and PERHAPS stirring/aggravating infecti
by manmal 8y ago
My wife‘s grandmother had all her teeth pulled and replaced with implants (probably a hint towards lifelong gum issues, and PERHAPS stirring/aggravating infections), and 2 years later developed aggressive Alzheimer’s, dying about 3 years later. She was only 64 when she died. To my knowledge, she never had any neuro or eye surgery. It’s just n=1 of course, but to me the gum disease hypothesis looks way more promising.
- SubiculumCode 8y agoOr perhaps infection by prions by metal dental equipment.
- manmal 8y agoUnlikely because only eye and neuro tissue would carry prions for contamination of equipment, right? Dental equipment should never come in contact with such tissue.
- b_tterc_p 8y agoAren’t gums chock full of nervous tissues?
- manmal 8y agoOh yes, you are right. I hope this whole issue will trigger some research. With these massive costs for Alzheimer's treatment coming towards them, even insurances should be interested in real advancements by now.
- 1_over_n 8y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18648043 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18648043 There was another HN thread about the "indestructibility" of prions, and I believe there is a growing consensus that they are not removed by existing techniques within dentistry.
- koheripbal 8y agoThe upper palate has a direct line into the brain to facilitate smelling neurons. It is conceivable that a surgical operation on the upper teeth might cross contaminate patients.
- saluki 8y agoWe had a family member have all their teeth pulled and go with dentures/implants and it seems to have triggered aggressive Alzheimers as well.
- IAmGraydon 8y agoWhat evidence do you have to support that hypothesis?
- pbhjpbhj 8y agoMy relatives who had/have Alzheimer's haven't had any /reported/ gum disease [so I'm not ruling it out]. Age when teeth are pulled probably correlates well with age when Alzheimer's is first noticed. It's like "newspapers cause cigarette addiction, people always buy cigarettes in stores where they sell newspapers" [apparent correlation; insufficient observation].
- IAmGraydon 8y agoYour hypothesis doesn’t make much sense to me. Why wouldn’t you assume that something about the surgery caused Alzheimer’s since that is what directly preceded its onset?
- leoh 8y agoI think it's not the surgery, it's that the surgery was required due to gum disease
- IAmGraydon 8y agoRight - I understand that. I'm asking why you would assume that gum disease caused Alzheimer's since it appears that CURING it directly preceded the Alzheimer's.
- manmal 8y agoBecause pulling all teeth is a sign that you had life-long problems with infections in the mouth area.