5 ms·

> with sedentary behavior and exposure to air pollution largely to blame. Both of my grandpas worked manual labor their entire lives. One had Alzheimer's, the

by genter 3y ago

> with sedentary behavior and exposure to air pollution largely to blame. Both of my grandpas worked manual labor their entire lives. One had Alzheimer's, the other started to develop dementia but is on medicine now. Interesting thing to note, both were extremely intelligent. Seems like the more intelligent of my extended family were also more likely to have memory issues.

joveian 3y ago
How was their sleep? I have sleep difficulty (including a non-24 hour circadian rhythm) and significant early memory issues. I also have a family history of dementia (I only know anything about the sleep of one family member with dementia, who did have significant sleep issues). I did a quick search and found there are some signs of a potential connection and this seems to be under more intense research at this point. Also, manual labor isn't the same as cardiovasular exercise and it is possible (and likely much easier these days with all of the powered machinery and transport) to not get much cardiovascular exercise despite a physically intensive job. Although I'm guessing even today a logger would.
- bluSCALE4 3y ago
  I'm convinced sleep has something to do with it. If sleep is an issue, then stress is likely also a factor so I imagine a racing mind with no rest is was does it.
  - joveian 3y ago
    Sleep issues can be stress related but aren't always (and aren't in my case, at least at this point). Stress does seem to make everything worse though and I could see it playing a role in my family members developing dementia. I could potentially see sleep issues and stress triggering a process. I was thinking more along the lines of circadian issues since the immune system works differently at night so I could imagine that confusion over if it should be in night mode or day mode could potentially cause serious trouble.
anonymouskimmer 3y ago
You edited out their jobs, but I saw before the edit. Without restating those jobs I'll say that one would have had exposure to emissions from 2-cycle mixed oil/gasoline engines. The other would have had exposure to lead solder fumes.
- genter 3y ago
  I edited that out because I thought it was superfluous, but you're right. Also the plumber smoked. (To those curious, one was a logger, the other was a plumber.)
  - genter 3y ago
    Upon further thought, the Romans were exposed to lead, their water pipes were made from lead (installed by plumbers), not to mention pewter and bronze objects. And they were certainly breathing lots of smoke from their cooking fires. Although wood smoke is probably less hazardous than two stroke oil.
    - plasticchris 3y ago
      They also sweetened their wine with lead acetate…
    - Anotheroneagain 3y ago
      They also got a lot of copper from those. It's well documented that brains with Alzheimer's lack copper. It's probably all that it is. The fight against copper has no scientific basic, it's actually hard to overdose on it, our bodies can handle it very well.
      - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
        Skimming a review article on this topic this appears to be the since at least partially discredited amyloid beta Alzheimer's hypothesis, and studies are divided on whether too much or too little copper is a problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810277/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810277/ : Scientific evidence has shown that metal ion binding to β-amyloid accelerates amyloid aggregation, which could finally damage the neurons in AD (Pithadia and Lim, 2012). The involvement of copper in AD is controversial, as some studies show copper deficiency in AD, and consequently a need to enhance copper levels (Borchardt et al., 1999; Kessler et al., 2005, 2008a,b; Exley, 2006; Jiao and Yang, 2007; Vural et al., 2010; Kaden et al., 2011; Exley et al., 2012), while other data point to copper overload and therefore a need to reduce copper levels (Cherny et al., 2001; Sparks et al., 2006; Hua et al., 2011; Luo et al., 2011; Ceccom et al., 2012; Eskici and Axelsen, 2012; Brewer, 2014; Squitti et al., 2014b; Yu et al., 2015). An aberrant copper homeostasis with an increase in the labile pool of copper and a decrease in the copper bound to protein is the main up-dated interpretation (Kepp, 2016; Squitti et al., 2016). In this paper, the role of metal ions, particularly copper, in AD is reviewed and discussed.

by genter 3y ago

joveian 3y ago

How was their sleep? I have sleep difficulty (including a non-24 hour circadian rhythm) and significant early memory issues. I also have a family history of dementia (I only know anything about the sleep of one family member with dementia, who did have significant sleep issues). I did a quick search and found there are some signs of a potential connection and this seems to be under more intense research at this point. Also, manual labor isn't the same as cardiovasular exercise and it is possible (and likely much easier these days with all of the powered machinery and transport) to not get much cardiovascular exercise despite a physically intensive job. Although I'm guessing even today a logger would.

bluSCALE4 3y ago
I'm convinced sleep has something to do with it. If sleep is an issue, then stress is likely also a factor so I imagine a racing mind with no rest is was does it.
- joveian 3y ago
  Sleep issues can be stress related but aren't always (and aren't in my case, at least at this point). Stress does seem to make everything worse though and I could see it playing a role in my family members developing dementia. I could potentially see sleep issues and stress triggering a process. I was thinking more along the lines of circadian issues since the immune system works differently at night so I could imagine that confusion over if it should be in night mode or day mode could potentially cause serious trouble.

anonymouskimmer 3y ago

You edited out their jobs, but I saw before the edit. Without restating those jobs I'll say that one would have had exposure to emissions from 2-cycle mixed oil/gasoline engines. The other would have had exposure to lead solder fumes.

genter 3y ago
I edited that out because I thought it was superfluous, but you're right. Also the plumber smoked. (To those curious, one was a logger, the other was a plumber.)
- genter 3y ago
  Upon further thought, the Romans were exposed to lead, their water pipes were made from lead (installed by plumbers), not to mention pewter and bronze objects. And they were certainly breathing lots of smoke from their cooking fires. Although wood smoke is probably less hazardous than two stroke oil.
  - plasticchris 3y ago
    They also sweetened their wine with lead acetate…
  - Anotheroneagain 3y ago
    They also got a lot of copper from those. It's well documented that brains with Alzheimer's lack copper. It's probably all that it is. The fight against copper has no scientific basic, it's actually hard to overdose on it, our bodies can handle it very well.
    - anonymouskimmer 3y ago
      Skimming a review article on this topic this appears to be the since at least partially discredited amyloid beta Alzheimer's hypothesis, and studies are divided on whether too much or too little copper is a problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810277/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810277/ : Scientific evidence has shown that metal ion binding to β-amyloid accelerates amyloid aggregation, which could finally damage the neurons in AD (Pithadia and Lim, 2012). The involvement of copper in AD is controversial, as some studies show copper deficiency in AD, and consequently a need to enhance copper levels (Borchardt et al., 1999; Kessler et al., 2005, 2008a,b; Exley, 2006; Jiao and Yang, 2007; Vural et al., 2010; Kaden et al., 2011; Exley et al., 2012), while other data point to copper overload and therefore a need to reduce copper levels (Cherny et al., 2001; Sparks et al., 2006; Hua et al., 2011; Luo et al., 2011; Ceccom et al., 2012; Eskici and Axelsen, 2012; Brewer, 2014; Squitti et al., 2014b; Yu et al., 2015). An aberrant copper homeostasis with an increase in the labile pool of copper and a decrease in the copper bound to protein is the main up-dated interpretation (Kepp, 2016; Squitti et al., 2016). In this paper, the role of metal ions, particularly copper, in AD is reviewed and discussed.