nicholson Posted July 2, 2015 Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 On TV here this evening one news item claimed that a study from Johns Hopkins has found that alzheimer's care-givers are six times more likely than the general population to come down with alzheimer's themselves. Rarely do we see risk factors as high as this, and it must raise a question about whether a communicable pathogen may be involved. Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted July 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 The following paper would appear to indicate that it is not the emotional stress associated with caring for an alzheimer's patient that accounts for the six-fold higher risk: http://www.psychosomaticsjournal.com/article/S0033-3182%2890%2972171-8/abstract?cc=y= If it were, then people caring for cancer patients would also see dramatically elevated risk for alzheimer's. This may turn out to be quite stunning information. Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted July 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2015 Strangely, I have not been able to find any reference - even on the Johns Hopkins website - to the caregivers study I mentioned originally above. Did someone get their wires crossed, I wonder? I will contact the TV station that aired this. Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saul Posted July 3, 2015 Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 Hi Rodney. I've sent your post to Prof. James Whitfiled. Prof. Whitfield is a member of the CNRC of Ottawa-- this is the equivalent of the National Research Council of the US. Prof. Whittfield is one of the pioneers in studying the effects of PTH on bone density, and in the research that led to the development of drugs like Forteo. He has turned his attention to Alzheimers. Here is his response: Hi Saul: This result would be reasonable. In the case of AD the caregivers are first usually middle-aged close relatives before the patient is sent from home to an independent professional facility. This puts an initially huge, sustained, prolonged, and obviously hopeless strain on the family caregivers, the consequences of which, such as intense corticosteroid pounding on the key AD-“Ground Zero” parts of a caregiver’s brain. Cancer caregiving is entirely different. The strain on cancer caregivers is different. The patient retains her/his memory of the family; the strain is equally intense but it is far less prolonged; and treatment is carried out in medical facilities with some hope for survival. However, it must be understood that such data do not mean any contagiousness of AD or cancers. This sounds reasonable to me. -- Saul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted July 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2015 And the TV station has not gotten back to me either. So, I have no idea where they got their information. Or even if it is accurate. Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 MORE ON ALZHEIMER'S: J Alzheimers Dis. 2015;43(3):957-66. doi: 10.3233/JAD-140621. Bacterial infection and Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis. Maheshwari P1, Eslick GD1. Author information Abstract The possibility of an infectious etiology for Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been repeatedly postulated over the past three decades. We provide the first meta-analysis to address the relationship between bacterial infection and AD. Studies examining the association between AD and spirochetal bacteria or Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Cpn) were identified through a systematic search of the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Data combined from 25 relevant, primarily case-control studies demonstrated a statistically significant association between AD and detectable evidence of infection of either bacterial group. We found over a ten-fold increased occurrence of AD when there is detectable evidence of spirochetal infection (OR: 10.61; 95% CI: 3.38-33.29) and over a four-fold increased occurrence of AD in a conservative risk estimate (OR: 4.45; 95% CI: 2.33-8.52). We found over a five-fold increased occurrence of AD with Cpn infection (OR: 5.66; 95% CI: 1.83-17.51). This study shows a strongly positive association between bacterial infection and AD. Further detailed investigation of the role of bacterial infection is warranted. Rodney. "The unverified conventional wisdom is almost invariably mistaken." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeta Posted October 12, 2015 Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Rodney, thanks. Interesting. It's hard to assess the claims without seeing the full paper -- the connection may be one of reverse causality; interesting nonetheless. Zeta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Yes, Zeta. The association found doesn't *prove* anything. But the ORs are so large I would think it ought immediately to wake some people up to design a study to check whether or not cause and effect is going on here. Perhaps in ten years we may know? Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicholson Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Following up on this: A little earlier I posted the abstract of a paper reporting on finding an apparent connection between a greatly elevated risk of alzheimer's and evidence of previous infection with Chlamydophila pneumoniae. In that light the following note from Vanderbilt University may be of interest: http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu:8080/reporter/index.html?ID=779 It says that Chlamydophila pneumoniae is transmitted as follows: "The Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) organism, first described in 1988, ................. is an airborne organism that you get from breathing after a person carrying the organism has coughed. They float around as droplet nuclei, similar to TB. People cough and up come these infectious bodies. They float around a room. You breathe. In they come and now you've got your own." The Vanderbilt article also mentions Johns Hopkins, which may explain my mention of Johns Hopkins in the very first post I made in this thread. Just a heads up that may be of interest. Rodney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.