[HN Gopher] Alzheimer's disease may be inherited more often than...
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Alzheimer's disease may be inherited more often than previously
known
Author : ecolonsmak
Score : 20 points
Date : 2024-05-06 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cnn.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cnn.com)
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| I'll have to read it again but I didn't notice where they ruled
| out environmental factors (read: epigenetics). The thing about
| families is they share environments, diet, habits, other norms,
| etc.
| tupshin wrote:
| They haven't ruled out epigenetics causes, but they are talking
| about a very specific gene (APOE4) with an extremely strong
| correlation with Alzheimer's when two copies of the gene are
| present.
| odyssey7 wrote:
| Does everybody with two copies get Alzheimer's? If not, then
| there _must_ be at least one additional ingredient / cause.
| tupshin wrote:
| > Not only were people with two copies of the APOE4 gene
| much more likely to develop the biological changes that
| lead to Alzheimer's disease, similar to people with the
| other genetic forms of the disease, they were almost
| assured the diagnosis: Nearly 95% of the people in the
| studies with two copies of the APOE4 gene had the biology
| of Alzheimer's disease by the time they were 82 years old.
| odyssey7 wrote:
| What percentage of people have microplastics in their
| body? Or have been previously infected by _common
| childhood illness_? I'm not giving these as theories for
| Alzheimer's etiology, but to show that some environmental
| factors are ubiquitous.
|
| Just because an environmental factor is ubiquitous---or
| is ubiquitous within the frame of some sampling bias for
| the study---doesn't mean we should conclude the cause
| does not exist.
| zybftjmvs wrote:
| If a person is given an IV line, wouldn't friction
| introduce micro plastics into their body?
| mistersquid wrote:
| > What percentage of people have microplastics in their
| body? Or have been previously infected by common
| childhood illness? I'm
|
| Unless 95% of these populations also are assured an
| Alzheimer's diagnosis by 82, your chosen confounding
| statistics may have little bearing on how closely double
| copies of the APOE4 gene is associated with Alzheimer's
| diagnoses.
| Thorentis wrote:
| Their point is that if 100% (for the sake of argument) of
| the population contains microplastics, and the
| combination of that PLUS the two genes, equals
| Alzheimers, then the microplastics was still a cause,
| it's just that in reality, given the entire population
| now has the first factor, the gene is what is appearing
| as the sole contributing factor. But that doesn't mean we
| can rule out other (albeit ubiquitous) environmental
| factors as additional contributing (or perhaps even
| required) causes.
| m463 wrote:
| Yeah if it is a prion disease, it might be transmitted.
| subsubzero wrote:
| I read a book called "Brain trust" last year about prion
| diseases being the cause of massive increases in Alzheimers
| cases. The idea was intriguing but one fact the author
| mentioned was about how the US does not test meat in decent
| intervals for CJD or other prion diseases, while Japan does.
| The book was written in the early 2000's so alot of the stuff
| that was posited can be checked today and that was one thing
| that I did check, comparing Japans rate of Alzheimers to the
| US and both countries are seeing the same huge uptick in
| cases. So it seems like its a global issue and not really one
| that is based in the US due to "potentially" infected meat.
|
| On a side note I know alot of people(not related to me) that
| are being affected with severe memory issues in their 60's
| and 70's. A friends Dad is in a memory care facility and he
| is in his mid 60's and was extremely fit(he was also a avid
| hunter - unsure if this was a cause). My Wife's aunt's Mom
| (not related by blood to her) has severe dementia and is in
| her 70's and needs $7k a month constant memory care. A
| friends mom has sundowners and every day her memory "erases",
| my Friend was looking into memory care for her and was quoted
| $13k a month for this. All these cases seem quite strange as
| the individuals led normal lives and then just started
| suffering these extreme memory/brain issues. I do not know
| what is causing it but I think its alot more widespread than
| people know.
| icegreentea2 wrote:
| I -think- this is a working shareable link
| https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-02931-w
| Metacelsus wrote:
| This isn't really anything new, the paper is just proposing APOE4
| homozygous Alzheimer's as a special category.
| alwillis wrote:
| > This isn't really anything new
|
| Not true.
|
| As someone who's recently spoken to a genetic counselor about
| this very issue, this is basically a 180 degree turn.
|
| _Now, researchers say APOE4 shouldn't just be recognized as a
| risk factor, it should be viewed as an inherited form of the
| disease, virtually assuring that a person who has two copies
| will get the biological changes associated with Alzheimer's
| disease in their brains._
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