5 ms·

I tend to feel like "fun speculation" around new science research feeds loads of incorrect information being spread. Which makes it not fun to me at all.

toomuchtodo 7y ago
If you're getting your health information solely from Hacker News, without any additional research or critical thinking, you should probably not do that. I'm not a domain expert (Virologist or otherwise in medicine), nor do I pretend to be, and I qualified my statement at the top of the thread ("might"). Everything else in my comment was factual.
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  I just don’t think wild speculation about science is fun. What is fun to me about science is fact based exploration. Hypothesis is great and conjecture has its place, but wild conjecture is not fun to me. You can feel otherwise and that’s okay!
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    I don't believe my original comment was wild conjecture (although it did lack a citation how I arrived at the hypothesis), but in keeping with your ideals as it relates to putting forth a thesis in a public forum: > We believe that HSV1 is a major contributory factor for Alzheimer’s disease and that it enters the brains of elderly people as their immune system declines with age. It then establishes a latent (dormant) infection, from which it is reactivated by events such as stress, a reduced immune system and brain inflammation induced by infection by other microbes. > Excitingly, successful prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by use of specific anti-herpes agents has now been demonstrated in a large-scale population study in Taiwan. Hopefully, information in other countries, if available, will yield similar results. https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-mounting-evidence-that-herpes-virus-is-a-cause-104943 https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-mounting-evid... (Alzheimer’s disease: mounting evidence that herpes virus is a cause) The author of the post is Ruth Itzhaki, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Neurobiology, University of Manchester This (in my opinion) would lead a reasonable person to believe that an HSV-1 vaccine would prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s (through the prevention of an HSV-1 infection), in a similar fashion to how the HPV vaccine prevents (among other cancers) cervical cancer. I hope you have found some value in this subthread.
    - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
      Ah, you're probably right. I'm sorry, I believe I misunderstood. Well it would be great to figure out a vaccine for HSV-1 and HSV-2.
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        No apologies necessary, I frequently forget that I can’t assume context is known and should be providing more citations upfront.

toomuchtodo 7y ago

If you're getting your health information solely from Hacker News, without any additional research or critical thinking, you should probably not do that. I'm not a domain expert (Virologist or otherwise in medicine), nor do I pretend to be, and I qualified my statement at the top of the thread ("might"). Everything else in my comment was factual.

TaylorAlexander 7y ago
I just don’t think wild speculation about science is fun. What is fun to me about science is fact based exploration. Hypothesis is great and conjecture has its place, but wild conjecture is not fun to me. You can feel otherwise and that’s okay!
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  I don't believe my original comment was wild conjecture (although it did lack a citation how I arrived at the hypothesis), but in keeping with your ideals as it relates to putting forth a thesis in a public forum: > We believe that HSV1 is a major contributory factor for Alzheimer’s disease and that it enters the brains of elderly people as their immune system declines with age. It then establishes a latent (dormant) infection, from which it is reactivated by events such as stress, a reduced immune system and brain inflammation induced by infection by other microbes. > Excitingly, successful prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by use of specific anti-herpes agents has now been demonstrated in a large-scale population study in Taiwan. Hopefully, information in other countries, if available, will yield similar results. https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-mounting-evidence-that-herpes-virus-is-a-cause-104943 https://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-mounting-evid... (Alzheimer’s disease: mounting evidence that herpes virus is a cause) The author of the post is Ruth Itzhaki, Professor Emeritus of Molecular Neurobiology, University of Manchester This (in my opinion) would lead a reasonable person to believe that an HSV-1 vaccine would prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s (through the prevention of an HSV-1 infection), in a similar fashion to how the HPV vaccine prevents (among other cancers) cervical cancer. I hope you have found some value in this subthread.
  - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
    Ah, you're probably right. I'm sorry, I believe I misunderstood. Well it would be great to figure out a vaccine for HSV-1 and HSV-2.
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      No apologies necessary, I frequently forget that I can’t assume context is known and should be providing more citations upfront.