6 ms·

> Catching these clumps early while still in minute quantities can enable effective intervention I wonder what interventions they mean here. Drugs, lifestyle c

> Catching these clumps early while still in minute quantities can enable effective intervention I wonder what interventions they mean here. Drugs, lifestyle changes?

caycep 2y ago
Presumably, a newer generation of anti-amyloid or anti tau agents. There are current gen ones (targeted monoclonal ab ) which aren’t that incredibly effective but there’s some thought that maybe that’s due to treating the wrong patients at the wrong time, vs starting therapy earlier on
- WillyWonkaJr 2y ago
  Didn't it turn out that the amyloid plaque hypothesis was based on a fraudulent paper?
  - pedalpete 2y ago
    Not exactly. There are "issues" with one of the early papers, and I believe some other follow-up papers, but not all research had these issues.
thaumasiotes 2y ago
Nothing. We don't know of an intervention for Alzheimer's. Early detection can enable effective intervention, but in this case it doesn't.
- snailmailstare 2y ago
  We have a lot of correlations and theories and now we can test over more than 10 years and see what happens when with patients where we have successfully kept these markers down from a much earlier start. I just hope they control correctly for brain bleeds and premature death.
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    That will be a fun set of experiments. As far as I'm aware, we currently have no evidence to suggest whether the appropriate model for this protein accumulation is more "it's like a cancer growing on your organ" or "it's like a scab growing over an open wound". Are scabs markers of injury? Of course. Could we reduce injuries by preventing the development of scabs? No, that's a new horrifying medical condition called hemophilia. In the general case, it's rapidly fatal. This is something that really bothers me about the current craze for suppressing inflammation. In that case, we already know that inflammation is like scabs, a defensive reaction against some other problem. For Alzheimer's, we don't know anything.
trashface 2y ago
Probably not going to be super popular but maybe heating your brain for 20 years? https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5293253 https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5293253
- bondant 2y ago
  If going to the sauna daily is all it takes to prevent it, that would be quite a thing!
  - maest 2y ago
    Is Alzheimer's less prevalent in sauna going populatioo?
    - bondant 2y ago
      I don't know, but the parent's link article says: >"I spent 20 years in the Navy, most of it in the hot spots, like the engine rooms of ships—110 degrees is nothing on a ship," he says. That environment may have caused an increase in heat shock proteins, which were able to limit the spread of tau and prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. The scientists studying Whitney aren't sure if that's all, or even part, of the explanation. But they are hoping that the paper on Whitney will encourage other researchers to look for answers. So instead of going to work for the navy, one could just go to the sauna daily. Edit: turns out that it might be true: https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/46/2/245/2654230?login=false https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/46/2/245/2654230?log...
    - askonomm 2y ago
      According to this it would be the opposite: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28687259/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28687259/ So maybe Sauna is good, but where Sauna is popular is usually a place that is very cold and humid, which is not good.
      - memkit 2y ago
        Finland has huge toxic algae bloom problems. The link between BMAA (from toxic algae blooms) and neurodegenerative diseases in predisposed people is basically causal and proven at this point, but it's allegedly suppressed by Big Fishing and Aquaculture. You may be right. There are many other components contributing to the problem in Finland, too.
josephpmay 2y ago
There’s been evidence recently that GLP-1 Agonists can delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. Look up the evoke and evoke+ trials. This might be the first “real” treatment for Alzheimer’s, and it’s relatively low risk.
- nwienert 2y ago
  GLP-1 agonists are life extension drugs, they cure way more than just weight.
pedalpete 2y ago
We've been developing Sleep slow-wave enhancement tech for the last few years, and studies are showing promise as a potential prevention and management of AD. These links were not using our tech, but are based on the same principles of phase-targeted slow-wave enhancement. We have an enhanced protocol aiming to overcome some of the issues these researchers experienced with previous implementations. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10758173/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10758173/ https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.10778 https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.10778

> Catching these clumps early while still in minute quantities can enable effective intervention I wonder what interventions they mean here. Drugs, lifestyle changes?

caycep 2y ago

Presumably, a newer generation of anti-amyloid or anti tau agents. There are current gen ones (targeted monoclonal ab ) which aren’t that incredibly effective but there’s some thought that maybe that’s due to treating the wrong patients at the wrong time, vs starting therapy earlier on

WillyWonkaJr 2y ago
Didn't it turn out that the amyloid plaque hypothesis was based on a fraudulent paper?
- pedalpete 2y ago
  Not exactly. There are "issues" with one of the early papers, and I believe some other follow-up papers, but not all research had these issues.

thaumasiotes 2y ago

Nothing. We don't know of an intervention for Alzheimer's. Early detection can enable effective intervention, but in this case it doesn't.

snailmailstare 2y ago
We have a lot of correlations and theories and now we can test over more than 10 years and see what happens when with patients where we have successfully kept these markers down from a much earlier start. I just hope they control correctly for brain bleeds and premature death.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  That will be a fun set of experiments. As far as I'm aware, we currently have no evidence to suggest whether the appropriate model for this protein accumulation is more "it's like a cancer growing on your organ" or "it's like a scab growing over an open wound". Are scabs markers of injury? Of course. Could we reduce injuries by preventing the development of scabs? No, that's a new horrifying medical condition called hemophilia. In the general case, it's rapidly fatal. This is something that really bothers me about the current craze for suppressing inflammation. In that case, we already know that inflammation is like scabs, a defensive reaction against some other problem. For Alzheimer's, we don't know anything.

trashface 2y ago

Probably not going to be super popular but maybe heating your brain for 20 years? https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5293253 https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5293253

bondant 2y ago
If going to the sauna daily is all it takes to prevent it, that would be quite a thing!
- maest 2y ago
  Is Alzheimer's less prevalent in sauna going populatioo?
  - bondant 2y ago
    I don't know, but the parent's link article says: >"I spent 20 years in the Navy, most of it in the hot spots, like the engine rooms of ships—110 degrees is nothing on a ship," he says. That environment may have caused an increase in heat shock proteins, which were able to limit the spread of tau and prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. The scientists studying Whitney aren't sure if that's all, or even part, of the explanation. But they are hoping that the paper on Whitney will encourage other researchers to look for answers. So instead of going to work for the navy, one could just go to the sauna daily. Edit: turns out that it might be true: https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/46/2/245/2654230?login=false https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/46/2/245/2654230?log...
  - askonomm 2y ago
    According to this it would be the opposite: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28687259/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28687259/ So maybe Sauna is good, but where Sauna is popular is usually a place that is very cold and humid, which is not good.
    - memkit 2y ago
      Finland has huge toxic algae bloom problems. The link between BMAA (from toxic algae blooms) and neurodegenerative diseases in predisposed people is basically causal and proven at this point, but it's allegedly suppressed by Big Fishing and Aquaculture. You may be right. There are many other components contributing to the problem in Finland, too.

josephpmay 2y ago

There’s been evidence recently that GLP-1 Agonists can delay the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. Look up the evoke and evoke+ trials. This might be the first “real” treatment for Alzheimer’s, and it’s relatively low risk.

nwienert 2y ago
GLP-1 agonists are life extension drugs, they cure way more than just weight.

pedalpete 2y ago

We've been developing Sleep slow-wave enhancement tech for the last few years, and studies are showing promise as a potential prevention and management of AD. These links were not using our tech, but are based on the same principles of phase-targeted slow-wave enhancement. We have an enhanced protocol aiming to overcome some of the issues these researchers experienced with previous implementations. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10758173/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10758173/ https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.10778 https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.10778