We May Finally Know What Causes Alzheimer's -- and How To Stop It (newscientist.com)

We may finally have found the long-elusive cause of Alzheimer's disease: Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in chronic gum disease. New Scientist: That's bad, as gum disease affects around a third of all people. But the good news is that a drug that blocks the main toxins of P. gingivalis is entering major clinical trials this year, and research published Wednesday shows it might stop and even reverse Alzheimer's. There could even be a vaccine. Alzheimer's is one of the biggest mysteries in medicine. As populations have aged, dementia has skyrocketed to become the fifth biggest cause of death worldwide. Alzheimer's constitutes some 70 per cent of these cases and yet, we don't know what causes it.

Comments

People, Just Floss

[moehoward]

Just floss people. And don't FORGET to floss. The more you floss, the less you will forget to floss. See how that works?

Re:People, Just Floss

[Oswald McWeany]

Just floss people. And don't FORGET to floss. The more you floss, the less you will forget to floss. See how that works?

I'm really not much of a dancer though.

Re:People, Just Floss

[Uteck]

Maybe this will prompt changes to include dental coverage in with medical and not some half covered separate insurance with limited payout.
Diet is so important to your health, but getting damaged teeth fixed is expensive and mostly out of pocket. So you end up eating pre-processed crap that is bad for your health.

Re:People, Just Floss

[ShanghaiBill]

I thought the culprit was metal, aluminum specifically from pots, un-coated aluminum cans, etc.,
that found its way into the brain.

No. This was debunked long ago.

Myths about Alzheimers

Headline is a LIE, article makes that clear

[Anonymous Coward]

"Poor oral health is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. What’s not clear is whether gum disease causes the disorder or is merely a result"

EDITORS, EDIT !

Re:Headline is a LIE, article makes that clear

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you read the *entire* article, or did you just stop when you got triggered?

"Some brain samples from people without Alzheimer’s also had P. gingivalis and protein accumulations, but at lower levels. We already know that amyloid and tau can accumulate in the brain for 10 to 20 years before Alzheimer’s symptoms begin. This, says Lynch, shows P. gingivalis is a cause of Alzheimer’s, not a result."

Is the bacteria the cause or symptom?

[mykepredko]

I remember twenty/thirty plus years ago when researchers found aluminum ions in the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers and there was the suggestion that cooking without aluminum pots and pans would prevent Alzheimer's. It seems that the aluminum ions were a symptom of Alzheimer's and not a cause - but on the plus side it gave steel cookware a good boost.

If it's true that this bacteria causes Alzheimer's, then it's good news as it should be fairly easy to eradicate.

Re:Is the bacteria the cause or symptom?

[Anonymous Coward]

Same with the beta-amyloid plaques found in the brain of Alzheimer's sufferers. I worked on a monoclonal antibody treatment about 10 years ago that targeted these clots. The antibodies broke them up good but did not alleviate the condition or prevent the plaques from returning. They were symptomatic rather than causative.

Fact is, this is just another hypothesis among many. Other areas of interest are increased infection of herpes simplex (mouth sores) in the areas of the brain that are going bad. Antiviral trials are encouraging. Fungal infection has also been suggested since the disease is slow progressing like a fungal infection. Gum disease is just another hypothesis in a long line of em.

Re:Is the bacteria the cause or symptom?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

That study was heavily flawed (as you note). Just to clarify a bit, it was performed on post-mortem brain samples. The aluminum found in Alzheimer's brains came from the solution they had been preserved in. (The Alzheimer's brains had been previously identified, set aside and preserved, while the non-Alzheimer's brains were sampled, uh, fresh.)

Cue mass panic over soda cans, cooking ware, etc.

But it was an easy flaw to believe in, as aluminum in the blood DOES cause dementia, as was discovered when the early dialysis machines were made with aluminum containers for the water bath.
This led to "dialysis dementia syndrome", which limited the time a person with kidney failure could be kept alive on dialysis.

Once this was figured out (early 1980s) the containers were changed, the dialysate treated to remove aluminum (and the use of aluminum-containing antacids as phosphate-binding agents reduced or discontinued.) Then people could be kept alive and reasonably healthy for long enough on dialysis to make it possible to wait for a transplatable kidney donation.

Re:I already know

[Oswald McWeany]

I already know the cause...well I did but I forgot about it. What are we talking about again?

You were saying how much you loved Elon Musk, Tesla, space colonization, AI, self driving cars, and anything else high tech.

Re:Nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

Aaaaaand we have the perfect slashcomment. Experts say X, someone stops in here, says it's false, provides no links, no proof, just an unflinching assertion.

Re:Nonsense

[MightyYar]

Alzheimer's is distinct from vascular dementia. From this study:

Metabolic syndrome was present in 15.8% of the study participants. The presence of metabolic syndrome increased the risk of incident vascular dementia but not Alzheimer's disease over 4 years, independent of sociodemographic characteristics and the apolipoprotein (apo) E4 allele.

If true...

[tomhath]

"If borne out in clinical testing, COR388 could represent a wholly new approach to addressing a disease estimated to affect more than 5.4 million people in the United States." - Business Wire article

I really hope this turns out to be a breakthrough. But as the debunked Buzzfeed story showed us, something prefixed with "if true" isn't necessarily true.

Sugar causes plaque

[ArhcAngel]

There's a reason they call Alzheimer's Diabetes 3.

Re:I dunno...

[necro81]

but I don't see how it's a problem that he chooses to say that stuff.

Even when the things he says are obviously, demonstrably, and repeatedly incorrect? Don't you expect more from your leaders? I sure as hell do.