3 ms·
Summary: Wales used a cutoff date in 1933 to set eligibility for the vaccine: born before, ineligible; born after, eligible. The authors analyzed dementia rates
by PeterWhittaker 3y ago
Summary: Wales used a cutoff date in 1933 to set eligibility for the vaccine: born before, ineligible; born after, eligible. The authors analyzed dementia rates in the populations born one week before and one week after and found a significant decrease in the vaccination population born one week after.
Given the unlikelihood of any other salient differences in the two populations (they were all born within 14 days of each other), they conclude that the vaccine had prophylactic effects against dementia and further conclude that Alzheimer’s may be caused by a virus.
- ZooCow 3y agoThe vaccine was the shingles vaccine and it was administered in 2013.
- wrycoder 3y agoOnly in women, per the tweets.
- Filligree 3y agoWomen get Alzheimer at a much higher rate, and it's not clear why. Perhaps this could be related.
- telebell 3y agoMaybe because they have longer life expectancies and are less likely than men to die in most (all?) age brackets? Their husbands have died of heart disease before they get Alzheimer’s.
- bagacrap 3y agoThose sound like easy variables to control when you're trying to determine which sex is more affected.
- _maelstrom 3y agoThis would make sense if Alzheimer's turns out to be an autoimmune disorder. Women have higher rates of these types of diseases because the largest number of immune related genes are found on the X-chromosome, giving them a broader variety to their immune arsenal. So women are better able to fight off infections but more likely to suffer from overactive immune responses. A summary with some links: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/women-have-stronger-immune-systems-why-thats-not-always-a-good-thing https://www.healthline.com/health-news/women-have-stronger-i...