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Cold Sore Virus May Be Alzheimer's Smoking Gun
Science Daily is reporting that the virus behind cold sores has been found to be a major cause of the insoluble protein plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease sufferers. Researchers believe the herpes simplex virus is a significant factor in developing the debilitating disease and could be treated by antiviral agents such as acyclovir, which is already used to treat cold sores and other diseases caused by the herpes virus. Another future possibility is vaccination against the virus to prevent the development of Alzheimer's in the first place. The research was just published in the Journal of Pathology (abstract).
Man my mouth hurts but I don't remember why.
Alzheimers runs in families, which is particularly worrisome for me since I have it on both sides of my family. If it is caused by a virus, then why is it passed down in genes? Are some people more sucseptible to this virus, thus there is a gene for vulnerabilty to this virus, instead of a gene for Alzheimers??
in a few weeks, poor innocent little children will get visits from aunt bertha and grandma marge, and the first thing the strange smelly relatives will do is find the innocent children, exclaim "my how you've grown!" or "aren't you the cutest thing, i could eat you up!" and, approaching the children, who will now be rapt in horror, they will proceed to plant wet sloppy kisses, over the protestations and gyrations of the children sturggling to break free of the bear arm grip
and, the kids are right to object. they are trying to avoid herpes and alzheimers
kisses from old relatives is a brain mummifying disease
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
With these findings in mind, it would be interesting if someone were to do a study and see if there's a correlation between Alzheimer's incidence and people who have a tendency to get cold sores. Since only 20-40% (according to TFA) of HSV-1 carriers develop cold sores, I wonder if being susceptible to outbreaks indicates a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's later in life. You'd have to correct for all sorts of environment factors, but still, as someone who gets cold sores something awful that would be a very interesting study. Anyways, great article, it's good news if something comes out of this. HSV in its different varieties is already known to be responsible for quite a few diseases so only good can come out of more research into it.
Yes, yes it was a frostbite! Is that not the same as a cold sore, then?
See, this happens because English is not my native tongue. Never lived in an English-speaking country, either. While I do have a reasonably good command of it, there are rare instances where English fools me, just like now.
Note to self: cold sore != frostbite
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Actually, I would say it is the exact same thing, refusing possibly life-saving modern medicine to their children based on unfounded religious beliefs.
Not to mention, the argument that HPV vaccination will "Lower the perceived risk of engaging in sex" is complete BS. Word wide, throughout history, no teenager in the world has ever thought - "I want to have unprotected sex... but I might get Human PapillomaVirus!" The health related factors that lead to the choice of abstinence are more along the lines of pregnancy, HIV, and genital herpes. The truth is, it is not about prevention it is about punishment. HPV vaccination isn't going to have any affect on decision-making, but it reduces the chance the people will die for screwing around, and religious fundamentalists don't want that.
Furthermore, even if you believe there is any morality to this argument, it is still baseless due to the fact that sexual contact is not the only way to get a virus, even blood-born ones. If your daughter steps on a used needle in the sand at the beach, and catches HPV, and dies of cervical cancer, what have you achieved? You are responsible for her death. Furthermore, refusal to vaccinate against STDs is tantamount to blaming the victim for rape, as this is a common avenue for infection.
If it wasn't clear already, I feel strongly that anyone who would advocate against immunizations for 'moral reasons' is morally despicable.