4 ms·

It will be a major oops moment when we will find out that dementia is caused by some weird kind of bacterial or prion infection. And the whole moral explanation

It will be a major oops moment when we will find out that dementia is caused by some weird kind of bacterial or prion infection. And the whole moral explanation of it ("go read your damn books and talk to smart people or you will get Alzheimers!") will turn out to be same bullshit as moralistic obesity explanations ("just lazy and can't control yourself!") recently turned out to be. One big thing that changed in these decades is cleanliness simply due to better cleaning chemicals. Which certainly caused a reduction of infections of all kinds.

anticrymactic 1y ago
> turn out to be same bullshit as moralistic obesity explanations ("just lazy and can't control yourself!") recently turned out to be. Any reading on that?
- pjc50 1y ago
  Have you heard of Ozempic?
  - lm28469 1y ago
    Ozempic takes your willpower out of the equation so I'd say it puts a lot of people into the low self control category... I know people who've been obese all their lives and lost massive amount of weight once they were properly explained stuff like calories, glycemic index, excercise... I wish I was joking but some people out there are not even aware that food is supposed to be fuel for the body, not just something that you take when you're bored or because it tastes good and make you feel happy.
Nasrudith 1y ago
Reminds me of one funny probably-not-taken-very-seriously historian theory about Alzheimer's - that air pollution was responsible for its existence and the few natural sources were rare enough that there weren't any 'got Alzheimer's by spending too much time by an erupting volcano' cases. The main reason being the lack of pre-industrial accounts of anybody being old enough to show memory issues. It isn't strong proof by any other means. The bias of the accounts excluding it would sort of be like concluding that acne wasn't an issue because painted portraits of teens excluded them. I don't know if this theory is true but it is certainly an interesting one.

anticrymactic 1y ago

> turn out to be same bullshit as moralistic obesity explanations ("just lazy and can't control yourself!") recently turned out to be. Any reading on that?

pjc50 1y ago
Have you heard of Ozempic?
- lm28469 1y ago
  Ozempic takes your willpower out of the equation so I'd say it puts a lot of people into the low self control category... I know people who've been obese all their lives and lost massive amount of weight once they were properly explained stuff like calories, glycemic index, excercise... I wish I was joking but some people out there are not even aware that food is supposed to be fuel for the body, not just something that you take when you're bored or because it tastes good and make you feel happy.

Nasrudith 1y ago

Reminds me of one funny probably-not-taken-very-seriously historian theory about Alzheimer's - that air pollution was responsible for its existence and the few natural sources were rare enough that there weren't any 'got Alzheimer's by spending too much time by an erupting volcano' cases. The main reason being the lack of pre-industrial accounts of anybody being old enough to show memory issues. It isn't strong proof by any other means. The bias of the accounts excluding it would sort of be like concluding that acne wasn't an issue because painted portraits of teens excluded them. I don't know if this theory is true but it is certainly an interesting one.