New Blood Test That Screens For Alzheimer's May Be a Step Closer To Reality, Study Suggests (cnn.com) 75
Testing a person's blood for a type of protein called phosphorylated tau, or p-tau, could be used to screen for Alzheimer's disease with "high accuracy," even before symptoms begin to show, a new study suggests. CNN: The study involved testing blood for a key biomarker of Alzheimer's called p-tau217, which increases at the same time as other damaging proteins -- beta amyloid and tau -- build up in the brains of people with the disease. Currently, to identify the buildup of beta amyloid and tau in the brain, patients undergo a brain scan or spinal tap, which often can be inaccessible and costly. But this simple blood test was found to be up to 96% accurate in identifying elevated levels of beta amyloid and up to 97% accurate in identifying tau, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology.
"What was impressive with these results is that the blood test was just as accurate as advanced testing like cerebrospinal fluid tests and brain scans at showing Alzheimer's disease pathology in the brain," Nicholas Ashton, a professor of neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and one of the study's lead authors, said in an email. The study findings came as no surprise to Ashton, who added that the scientific community has known for several years that using blood tests to measure tau or other biomarkers has the potential to assess Alzheimer's disease risk. "Now we are close to these tests being prime-time and this study shows that," he said. Alzheimer's disease, a brain disorder that affects memory and thinking skills, is the most common type of dementia, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"What was impressive with these results is that the blood test was just as accurate as advanced testing like cerebrospinal fluid tests and brain scans at showing Alzheimer's disease pathology in the brain," Nicholas Ashton, a professor of neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and one of the study's lead authors, said in an email. The study findings came as no surprise to Ashton, who added that the scientific community has known for several years that using blood tests to measure tau or other biomarkers has the potential to assess Alzheimer's disease risk. "Now we are close to these tests being prime-time and this study shows that," he said. Alzheimer's disease, a brain disorder that affects memory and thinking skills, is the most common type of dementia, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Worth a reminder... (Score:5, Informative)
... that the damage in Alzheimer's increasingly appears to be the result of damage related to activation of the innate immune system in the central nervous system, and is linked to various viral infections, so not throwing caution to the wind when it comes to being a plague rat is advisable if you care about your brain not degenerating later in life.
Re: Worth a reminder... (Score:2)
I'm a bit pessimistic that the people who need this advice will listen. Remember, there are a significant number of people who have refused to protect others with a simple but inconvenient mask and have denied reality, sometimes violently.
Everything has gone political to the extreme. And changing your opinion about something is now treated like treason. People are now too worried about what side they appear to be on to even act like an independent thinking person. It's a shame but this is how democracy dies
Re: Worth a reminder... (Score:4, Informative)
First off, no [cdc.gov], they're [nih.gov] not [cdc.gov].
Secondly, masks are not the be-all end-all of airborne disease prevention. Others include:
* Maintaining a healthy personal distance when talking with people (does not reduce the risk of aerosols that have accumulated in a room, but reduces the risk of direct person-to-person transmission, as breath is vastly more contagious than even terrible ambient air, with a concentrated plume of which infectiousness drops in half within seconds of mixing with ambient air) (indeed, the distance impact is so profound in studies until recently it was wrongly believed that aerosol doesn't happen at all for most diseases, that it was purely distance alone that affected it).
* Ventilation (windows, fresh air fractions in HVAC systems, etc). CO2 meters are good to help ensure ventilation quality (which also helps with reducing indoor pollutants, keeping CO2 from getting to uncomfortable levels, etc)
* Preferring large indoor spaces to small for a given number of occupants, where practical
* Preferring outdoor spaces to indoor for gatherings, where practical
* Preferring remote meetings to in-person, where practical
* Filtration (personal air filters, better HVAC filters and flow rates, etc)
* Other methods of air cleaning (ceiling UV, far-UV, positive ion, etc).
* Being respectful when you suspect you might be sick (letting other people know, avoiding in-person meetings, being stricter above the above items); likewise, for those in positions of power (employers, etc), setting policies that encourage people to stay away when sick (it's in your interests as well!)
* Likewise in the inverse if someone around you is probably contagious
In terms of ambient air quality, the standard should be: people may still get infected by the sick person they spend an hour with chatting from 30 centimeters away, but they shouldn't in general be getting infected from the sick person across the room. That's preventable, and unfortunately, we don't do enough to prevent it - largely, because until recently we didn't even understand that it was "a thing". And with respect to "getting infected from a person you're spending an hour chatting with from 30 centimeters away" - maybe consider chatting from 1 meter, or even two. There's no reason you have to be directly inhaling someone's concentrated breath plume unless you're making out with them or something.
A few centuries ago, we drank dirty water all the time. Didn't think twice about it - if it's clear and doesn't smell, it's good to drink. Today, we're horrified of the idea of drinking unpurified water. We now understand all the gross pathogens that can live on water, and insist on our water being purified before we drink it. And if the *only* option available to us is water we suspect hasn't been properly purified, we'll boil it or use a life straw or similar.
It's about time we apply that same understanding to air.
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Your comments about the trust we used to have in clear water are wrong. That's one of the big reason tea and coffee became popular, it was one of the reasons behind the development of beer. We *need* water, and we avoid "obviously" unsafe water. But humans have long known that it's better to drink treated water.
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Hell the Romans drank dilute wine. Ask yourself why. It wasn't about getting blotto.
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Re: Worth a reminder... (Score:4, Insightful)
The Broad Street Pump incident begs to differ. People widely refused to believe that their clear fresh water could be the cause. Indeed, after the cholera outbreak ceased, despite the unambiguous evidence of contaminated water, the city went and put the handle back on the pump.
The notion that ancient peoples drank beer and wine because they knew they would get infected by clean-appearing water is a myth [tastesofhistory.co.uk]. People drank beer and wine because... they liked beer and wine (not to mention that they were calorie sources with a long shelf life). Now, it's quite possible that there was natural selection at work. But in general, medieval societies drank water as well in abundance. And their primary criteria for evaluating it was whether it was clear and had no foul odour.
I mean, there's literally a surviving phrase about it on the topic, meaning "a basic diet": that is, "bread and water".
Exactly what do you think all those medieval wells were for [ranker.com], given how rarely people bathed, if at all?
Exactly what would be the point of the old military tactic of contaminating a defender's water supply (such as with decomposing bodies) if nobody was drinking the water?
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I mean, just the existence of frequent cholera outbreaks alone puts the lie to the notion that people weren't drinking the water. Cholera is spread by the fecal-oral route.
Or look at the present. Humans continue to exist in places that don't have widespread modern knowledge of disease transmission mechanisms. Do these people "only drink beer and wine"? Of course not. Around the world, people drink water. And, lacking better information, they judge that water based on clarity and smell. Happily drinking
Masks [Re: Worth a reminder...] (Score:2)
those n95 masks are useless so unless you want to wear tyvek coveralls and a type C respirator or carry around an oxygen tank
Since the virus particles for respiratory infections (such as flu or COVID_19) are carried in droplets exhaled in the breath, masks actually do reduce the number of particles you inhale, and also the number you exhale. They are not perfect protection, but they are helpful.
Not sure what your suggestion of "tyvek coveralls" would do to reduce infection from respiratory viruses.
In any case, though, somebody should mod this whole thread "off topic"
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>"They are not perfect protection, but they are helpful."
Barely helpful as a mandate in the real world, as meta studies have now shown. And those just reinforced what we ALREADY KNEW, when it came to such past research with the flu, which spreads the exact same way. They are primarily beneficial for bacterial infections. And, thus, MANDATING mask-wearing by the general public was way out of left field and created yet another political storm for almost no benefit.
Hand washing was much more important.
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>"They are not perfect protection, but they are helpful."
Barely helpful as a mandate in the real world, as meta studies have now shown.
Indeed. Post hoc studies showed the counterintuitive result that wearing masks decreases infection rate, but mandates to wear masks has no effect on infection rate.
But we didn't know that at the time.
...
Hand washing was much more important. That really surprised me.
Data on that turned out to be pretty weak. If you look at the actual studies, there were very few with COVID-19 (more with flu and SARS), and mostly covering healthcare workers, not the public. (e.g., this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... [nih.gov] ).
Re: Worth a reminder... (Score:2)
Do you think an N95 mask is worthwhile while working in a dusty environment, like a wood shop? How about when you donâ(TM)t want to get spray from a disgusting tasting liquid in your mouth?
Theyâ(TM)re no use against chemical gasses that are small enough to pass straight through them, but theyâ(TM)re excellent at stopping water droplets with noxious substances (eg viruses mixed into saliva).
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What? Got any peer reviewed publications indicating that? Alzheimers seems to be very clearly linked to being caused by mutations in specific proteins, especially APOE.
Re:Worth a reminder... (Score:4, Interesting)
It is well established that some classes of viruses are oncogenic and can cause specific types of cancer like HPV. So it's not really that crazy of an idea to pose the question of: what risk does multiple viral infections have on a person's long-term genetic health?
That very idea is being explored according to this article [nih.gov]. It's mostly some data crunching and statistics, rather than any hard evidence. It's not proven (in fact there is currently no causal link), but it is interesting.
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If you are asserting that Alzheimer's is a prion disease...well, that's not unreasonable. But if there's a reason for the initial misfolding of the protein, then a viral cause isn't unreasonable.Given how slowly prion diseases progress, it's quite reasonable that the viral infection hasn't been tied to the disease itself.
I think the general assumption is that Alzheimer's it more complex that that sketch implies, though. And that's significant indication that the misfolded proteins are the result rather th
Re:Worth a reminder... (Score:4, Informative)
Link [google.com]
APOE variants affect Alzheimer's risk; it doesn't "cause" it (e.g. 100% association). Only just over 1/3rd of Caucasians with Alzheimer's have at least one copy of APOE-e4 (vs. just under 14% of of the population that has one copy), and only a small fraction of cases have two copies. Of the general population, 40-65% of Alzheimers cases involve APOE-e4. The highest concentration of APOE-e4 is in Nigeria, where Alzheimer's is comparably rare. There's basically no evidence that APOE-e4 is a cause, just that it can influence, at some point, the chain of events that leads to development of the disease (suspected either in reduced ability to breakdown amyoid beta plaques, or - now that the amyloid beta hypothesis has fallen out of favour - via affecting RELN signaling). It's also been argued that since APOE affects serum cholesterol, it's possible that it's rather serum cholesterol that explains a large portion of the APOE impact, and that even a person with two alleles can dramatically reduce their Alzheimer's risk just by lowering their chloesterol [nih.gov].
It's also notable that APOE has been shown to impact pathogens, including malaria and Lyme's disease, due to (in the case of malaria at least) its impact on the brain-blood barrier. And in that case too, APOE-e2 reduces the risk, while APOE-e4 increases the risk.
While amyloid beta was initially the focus of Alzheimers' direct cause, focus has since switched to tau, also found in the plaques, as being a more direct cause. While tau has many functions, notable among them is its interaction with the innate immune system in the CNS [wiley.com]. Tau is also associated with for example neurodegeneration after traumatic brain injury. Innate immune reactions in the CNS increase the risk of tauopathies across the board, not just in Alzheimer's.
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APOE-e4 is just one of the genes that make a difference there are over 50 in some Alzheimer's PRS lists.
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And none of them is a "cause", they just have impacts on the damage progression pathways, directly or (much more commonly) indirectly.
It's like HbS (the cause of sickle cell anemia) and malaria. Lacking the HbS gene doesn't cause malaria, but it is associated with malaria, because sickle cells are harder to infect. The cause of malaria is entirely unrelated to HbS. You can get malaria with or without HbS, but it's harder to get infected or to get a severe infection if you have HbS, because its impact on
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so not throwing caution to the wind when it comes to being a plague rat is advisable if you care about your brain not degenerating later in life.
Throwing caution to the wind when it comes to infections is already a sign of brain degeneration. This is a natural feedback loop.
Well now (Score:4, Informative)
RTFA, and although there are treatments for Alzheimer's that may slow the disease's progression, diagnosing the condition is currently more valuable if you don't have it... then physicians can look for another cause of your cognitive decline.
“When effective treatments to prevent the progression of Alzheimer’s disease become available it will be essential to be able to identify people who are at high risk before they begin to deteriorate.
Re:Well now (Score:4, Insightful)
"diagnosing the condition is currently more valuable if you don't have it."
Let's assume there's no way to slow its progression, early diagnosis is still useful for a number of reasons. For one thing, you'd know that the cognitive decline is going to get worse over time and therefore can take life actions to prepare for it such as checking things off the bucket list and ensuring you have optimal long term care. There's also some level of closure (not sure if that's the right word) in that you (and your family) know what's happening.
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Great point. It's much better to be able to prepare for this miserable end, than to discover it suddenly upon us.
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I don't know if you were serious or not, but I agree with the bald reading of what you said. At least you can get your affairs in order before the cognitive decline.
Personally, i'd consider assisted (or unassisted) suicide, but that's a personal choice.
Re: Well now (Score:2)
In a world that supported assisted suicide, it might also allow you time to make your wishes known, while youâ(TM)re capable of it, and/or to make sure that you are able to follow through before the disease removes your ability to reason about it.
Remember, Terry Pratchet made the choice to get on with things specifically because he didnâ(TM)t want to ever reach the point where he could no longer make the decision.
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With early diagnosis you know that a horrible fate awaits you. You can watch it slowly approach for decades!
It's like being run over by a Zamboni
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Yes people thought that for HIV too back in the 80s and 90s, but then really good treatments were invented. With all the recent discoveries, such as the Christchurch mutation and insights about soluble amyloid beta, there’s many paths to Alzheimer’s cures and treatments for at least the next decade or two.
Re:Well now (Score:5, Interesting)
RTFA, and although there are treatments for Alzheimer's that may slow the disease's progression, diagnosing the condition is currently more valuable if you don't have it... then physicians can look for another cause of your cognitive decline.
Ah yes, those treatments. Slowing the long goodbye - My MIL was on that. It may have lengthened her life - of course, it is impossible to tell, there is no control person. But the wonderful experiences in store for the lucky person having their disease progression slowed a bit. A few more years not knowing who you are. A few more years of your family watching you as a virtual vegetable, a few more years of drugged existence in a Nursing home. A few more years for the destruction of your estate. Another maintenance drug to take, and this one might not be doing anything
Perhaps it is just me as the outlier, but I am not so desperate to stretch my life span that I want to spend the last 15 years of it as a mindless husk.
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I could not agree more. The impossibly high value placed on human life gets in the way of reason to the extent that too many of us are alive, but not living, the tail end of our existence.
I hope the black pill (black pillow?) is an option for me when the drool starts to pour out the side of my mouth. We are so much kinder to our furry companions when a dignified end is required.
Re:Well now (Score:4, Insightful)
When the time actually came, however, he clung to life for as long as he could. His only nod to the inevitability of his impending death was to go on Hospice (hospice was rather new at the time in our area, but my mother was a hospice nurse for the service he used) and to secure a DNR (which is pretty standard for Hospice patients). He fought for every last breath
My take away from all that (and my mothers stories about other patients of hers) It is easy to be flippant about quality of live vs quantity of live when you are healthy. it is much harder to be facing that outcome imminently and still to choose a quick death over a few more days or weeks in agony.
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Yes. But it should be a matter of personal choice.
OTOH, when Alzheimer's took over, my father became a lot happier. He didn't worry at all about the results of his actions. Eventually, when he was hospitalized, and strapped to a bed to keep him from wandering about, he stood up in bed and then lost his balance and fell on his head on a concrete floor. (I'm leaving out lots of "humorous episodes".) As far as I was concerned, he'd been dead as a person for years. What was living was a subnormal chimpanz
Re:Well now (Score:4, Insightful)
This. When my grandmother died after a long bout with Alzheimer's, I said that it wasn't her that died. It was a thing that USED to be my grandmother.
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That said, when my Great Uncle was dying, his immediate family was doing everything they could to keep him alive, they were told what he had was terminal, and that all they were doing was prolonging his pain, but they couldn't accept that and continued to talk as if he was coming out of Hospital, walking, in good shape. I would talk to him and it became apparent that he was fighting to stay alive as long as possible, e
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good point. If my mind is essentially gone, then for what purpose am I being kept alive?
That said, when my Great Uncle was dying, his immediate family was doing everything they could to keep him alive, they were told what he had was terminal, and that all they were doing was prolonging his pain, but they couldn't accept that and continued to talk as if he was coming out of Hospital, walking, in good shape. I would talk to him and it became apparent that he was fighting to stay alive as long as possible, even with the huge amount of pain he was in. (why don't doctors prescribe meaningful doses of pain medication when a patient is terminal, if they are in pain?).
His family was still in the denial stage even as they were burying him. It appears to me that this may be more common than not.
I believe that we are still in a stage where we think we are "doing something" as a good thing. When I was a little kid, someone might get "hardening of the arteries" as they called it at the time, and after maybe a year, they passed. But the final phase didn't take too long. The family grieved, then moved on.
Today, it is a many year torture of the family.
Assuming I don't have a huge stroke that puts me out of commission and into that torture chamber of advanced care, my final gift to my family will be
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good for you. I too wish to ensure that my family is not turned into paupers by my death, but rather that they can enjoy an inheritance, such as it is. Dying in America is a very expensive proposition.
After my family's experience, if death in America is not a cynical and well designed pecuniary extraction method, it just looks exactly like a cynical and well designed pecuniary extraction process.
And so many of us play right into it.
Re:Well now (Score:4, Insightful)
If you Great Uncle had been put onto a hospice service, pain management would have become the top priority. Until that point, the medical professionals are required to behave as thought saving the patients life is the priority. Sometimes pain medications can interfere with that. Certain pain meds suppress respiration, so if the patient is having trouble breathing or with O2 saturation, then skimping on the pain meds to keep the patient alive becomes the trade off. However, once a patient goes on palliative care, the patients comfort becomes the priority, because it is now accepted that they are actively dying, and that there is no point in continuing to prolong the life at the expense of comfort.
Denial of what is happening by the patient family is very much the norm. My mother did hospice nursing for ~15 years, and the majority of families had at least a few members actively denying what was happening, and trying to blame the hospice service for not saving their family members life. Despite that being the opposite of the services job.
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For some people, simply denying the harsh realities around them is how they cope with problems they cannot fix. And frankly, it does work for many people, in a sick/twisted way. It is likely not the most productive way, but it does seem to work for some people.
My great aunt denied that my great grandmother was declining, that she had Alzheimers, and that she was dying. It made her life much more enjoyable for the l
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I did not want my Great Uncle to die, he was a great guy and I always enjoyed our time together, but, well, when the writing was on the wall, I did not want my selfish desire to not lose him to cause him to be in such horrible pain each and every day. So, one day, during my daily phone calls to talk to him, I told him that I loved him and that I didn't want him to be in pain anymore, that he needn't fi
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>"why don't doctors prescribe meaningful doses of pain medication when a patient is terminal, if they are in pain?"
They absolutely will in a hospice setting. In fact, it is one of the main goals- to provide maximum comfort AT THE EXPENSE of prolonging life for disease that is terminal and in the last stages.
>" His family was still in the denial stage even as they were burying him. It appears to me that this may be more common than not."
Yes, I have seen that many times. Even when the patient has comp
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Totally agree. I'm already in a lot of pain and not really able to live life. I absolutely don't want to be like this for too much longer, and I don't even have cognitive issues yet.
What's the point, to watch the world burn?
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Totally agree. I'm already in a lot of pain and not really able to live life. I absolutely don't want to be like this for too much longer, and I don't even have cognitive issues yet.
What's the point, to watch the world burn?
Do you have access to medical THC? I have a lot of sports related injuries that have come back, and in a special form of torture, I'm allergic to opioids, aspirin rots my stomach, and acetaminophen works kinda, but is toxic for long term use.
Then I tried a gummi, (legally of course) and I thought "what the actual fuck?" Pain gone, and my wife tells me the sedative effect makes me easier to tolerate! 8^)
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Tried gummies, no effect. Too much pain to go out and see docs who will give me opioids.
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I do have Kratom, which is a crappy sort of cousing to opioids. Have to use a lot and it doesn't work very well. But it's the only thing that's sort of legal.
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A certain diagnosis and slowed progress would allow you to have some more time to get your affairs in order before resolving everything on your own terms. You could always stop taking the drugs once your checklist is complete.
Well, sure. But I had my affairs in order a long time ago. Then again, I'm an inveterate planner. I was planning my retirement when I was 20, and had all of the advance directive and will issues taken care of in my 40's. I should have started that earlier.
But waiting until you are diagnosed is waaaay too late in my estimation.
That's absurd (Score:2)
What? Slowing the progression, if the condition is caught early by tests like these, also means a few more years of knowing who your family and friends are and that's invaluable. How is it that you come to such a worst possible conclusion when things like this will add years of meaningful life to people?
It's not as if these people need to keep the prolonging treatment going after they turn brain dead either. Plenty of folks ask to not to be resuscitated because they know their quality of life is turning to
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How is it that you come to such a worst possible conclusion when things like this will add years of meaningful life to people?
Experience.
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So you have experience with this new diagnoses method that hasn't even been approved yet? No you don't.
Ive had family members die from Alzheimer's as well and it would have been utterly fantastic if they had been diagnosed years before any symptoms kicked in via something like this as it would have meant hitting the meds early and thus several more years of quality life than they got. This life is all we have, it's utterly absurd to be so negative about something that has the potential to add years of meani
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So you have experience with this new diagnoses method that hasn't even been approved yet?
No, I have experience with family members being medicated with the Alzheimer drugs. Actual boots on the ground. Both my SO and I had enough of that that we specifically put that in our advance directive. Anyhow - you do you homie.If you want to spend more years while living that way, gobble them pills. Do not go gently into that good night. Fight and rage, for winner of life is he who expires last. And the ending is always the same. Mindless, drugged on Haldol until your processes fail because of your brain
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Anyhow - you do you homie.If you want to spend more years while living that way, gobble them pills.
NO. I'm not going to let you redefine what I'm saying and the act all enlightened about it so you can save face from your own stupidity. I have explained to you over and over again how this creates the opportunity to go on meds sooner which means more fucking GOOD years.
Early detection = earlier med use = symptoms take longer to develope = more good years (NOT FUCKING BAD ONES).
Your false politeness here is ri
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Anyhow - you do you homie.If you want to spend more years while living that way, gobble them pills.
NO. I'm not going to let you redefine what I'm saying and the act all enlightened about it so you can save face from your own stupidity. I have explained to you over and over again how this creates the opportunity to go on meds sooner which means more fucking GOOD years.
Early detection = earlier med use = symptoms take longer to develope = more good years (NOT FUCKING BAD ONES).
Your false politeness here is ridiculous as you aren't even addressing or even acknowledging what I'm telling you.
Seriously me hearty, I don't have to address what you say. Don't like it? Don't reply. You are perhaps not as smart as you think you are. You are parroting drug company lines, and those of people with a rather substantial fear of death. And your rather sad dropping to insults, shows that is your main competency. If my not dropping to your level angers you, tough.
Your issue - and it is seen throughout your posts - is that we are dealing with opinions and outlooks - and you get terribly upset if someone d
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Seriously me hearty, I don't have to address what you say. Don't like it? Don't reply.
Your high and mighty act is pretty pathetic here. You're the one posting in a public space open to conversation from all and you're the one who is then refusing to acknowledge what some one else is telling you. Now you're just being sore because I'm calling you out as being the jackass that you've been being. If you dont like people calling you a jackass for repeatedly failing to acknowledge anything they've told while instead put words in their mouths they arent saying then you shouldnt be posting in a pub
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Slowing the long goodbye - My MIL
My (ongoing) experience has changed/strengthened my views on assisted suicide for sure.
The tricky point is how do you know when to say goodbye? Of course you still need to do that when there's enough of you left to still get something out of life (potentially).
And not just that but in the UK you need to have enough of you left to be able to sort the thing out entirely on your own with zero assistance otherwise your loved ones might end up in gaol, because assisted suicide is
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Slowing the long goodbye - My MIL
My (ongoing) experience has changed/strengthened my views on assisted suicide for sure.
The tricky point is how do you know when to say goodbye?
True about the question - I expect to save my family from that goodbye if at all possible.
I hope I don't get a big stroke and become incapable of exiting on my terms.
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True about the question - I expect to save my family from that goodbye if at all possible.
I mean in general, when do you choose to say goodbye to life? Day of the diagnosis? For me that's when the prep starts. You can have 10-15 years if you're diagnosed very early before you lose everything.
I hope I don't get a big stroke and become incapable of exiting on my terms.
Yep, that too.
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True about the question - I expect to save my family from that goodbye if at all possible.
I mean in general, when do you choose to say goodbye to life? Day of the diagnosis? For me that's when the prep starts. You can have 10-15 years if you're diagnosed very early before you lose everything.
I always likened it to "when I hear the bell tolling". That is when I see the inexorable path. Like a terminal illness that starts requiring a lot of pain killers/medical interventions. Especially since I'm allergic to opioids - my options for pain killing are extremely limited. Or if I get one of the common dementia signals like pervasive confusion. Then during a period of lucidity, take myself out.
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I always likened it to "when I hear the bell tolling". [...] Or if I get one of the common dementia signals like pervasive confusion. Then during a period of lucidity, take myself out.
That's the thing yeah. What I hope is if it ever comes to it that I don't leave it too late and lack the lucidity even during the more lucid times. The nasty thing is the bell tolls when you first get the diagnosis, but you might have a decade before you're unable to execute the plan, and the nature of it is it strips away yo
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The idea isn't to lengthen the bad years but to get a few more good ones before they start. And it's just as possible to do the latter as the former once you know which monster you're facing.
Perhaps my family members who lived a shadow existence on the life extension drugs were some sort of anomaly. Along with the others in the nursing home having the same experience.
It was so unpleasant, drugged people - with powerful drugs like Haldol because they were not really human any more.
This life extension thing simply makes each stage of Alzheimer's take longer. It doesn't make you bright, chipper, and mentally bright until one day you peacefully pass away with a grin on your face. It stretches
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>"Ah yes, those treatments. Slowing the long goodbye "
It entirely depends on what age and stage. Yes, it can prolong a nightmare that has already begun. But what if you are 50 and go through this new blood-test screening and find that taking some medication might give you 5 extra years of NOT being incapacitated? I think that was his main point.
It is especially relevant to those who have parents in the throws of the disease and are just starting to notice memory problems in themselves. Of course they
Re: (Score:2)
>"Ah yes, those treatments. Slowing the long goodbye "
It entirely depends on what age and stage. Yes, it can prolong a nightmare that has already begun. But what if you are 50 and go through this new blood-test screening and find that taking some medication might give you 5 extra years of NOT being incapacitated?
Look - if you don't care that you are only slowing the effects, and are happy to slow down the dementia process, so that each stage takes longer, then I fully recommend being tested, and then go on maintenance drugs. If you are really concerned about false negatives, you might be able to talk your doctor into gettin gyou the extension drugs anyhow.
Granted, perhaps my experience is irrelevant to you - and that's okay. Or you can call it anecdotal, and dismiss it entirely. But I've been there, I've seen t
I thought of a funny joke for this story, but... (Score:2)
I invented something similar (Score:1)
...but I forgot where I put the formula.
That's great. (Score:2)
Just hope I can remember the address of the clinic I need to go to for the test. Or the date of the appointment. Or... what was I saying?
we recommend (Score:2)
Your Alzheimer's test shows you will get Alzheimer's in the next 5 years. Accordingly, we are cancelling your drivers license, and we recommend that in order to mitigate climate change, you make arrangements for your suicide as soon as possible. Your cremation is scheduled in 30 days.
96% means 1 out of 25 get a false reading (Score:2)
"High accuracy was observed in identifying elevated A (area under the curve [AUC], 0.92-0.96; 95% CI, 0.89-0.99) and tau pathology (AUC, 0.93-0.97; 95% CI, 0.84-0.99) across all cohorts."
So I personally wouldn't go making immediate end of life plans based on this test, but a test indicating Alzheimer's would suggest looking for signs of decline more carefully. A test saying you
I don't understand (Score:2)
Make mandatory for US Presidents? (Score:1)