
Some studies show an association between the herpes virus and Alzheimer’s - hourislate
http://theconversation.com/alzheimers-disease-mounting-evidence-that-herpes-virus-is-a-cause-104943
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kens
A good overview of different hypotheses for Alzheimer's was published in
Nature a couple months ago [1]. I recommend reading this before jumping on the
latest HN theory. This article includes evidence for and against HSV.

[1]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05719-4](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05719-4)

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narrator
This is probably why methylene blue works so well to treat it.

See
[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3181/00379727-161-405...](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3181/00379727-161-40521?journalCode=ebma)
and [http://taurx.com/phase-3.html](http://taurx.com/phase-3.html)

~~~
gameswithgo
they seem to be describing some protocol also involving light? I assume you
can't just drink the stuff?

~~~
Tharkun
I'm pretty confident my 'home chemistry set' included something by that name
back in the late 80s. One of the experiments I remember is drinking some of it
in order to render my pee blue.

~~~
gameswithgo
have you acquired super powers, and or become an evil villain since?

~~~
Tharkun
Some people would probably claim the latter. The blue pee was temporary, and
mildly disappointing from what I remember. But I'm assuming it's reasonably
safe if it's included in chemistry sets...then again, mine also had mercury in
it..

~~~
jakobegger
So the chemistry set encouraged consuming some of the chemicals and also
contained mercury? How times have changed...

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runarberg
My former neurology teacher was working on finding a genetic model that could
predict Alzheimer's. They said that work was going well. However they were
also finding strong evidence for these infection models. which seems to
contradict their work. The disease couldn't be both hereditary and infectious.
Their answer were that possible we were looking at at least two different
diseases that just so happened to attack the same neurons, and hence produce
the same symptoms.

~~~
amelius
> The disease couldn't be both hereditary and infectious.

Why not? Why couldn't "proneness to infection" be hereditary, and the actual
infection completing the disease mechanism?

~~~
gameswithgo
or the way you respond to the infection could be genetic.

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bicubic
>Excitingly, successful prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by use of specific
anti-herpes agents has now been demonstrated in a large-scale population study
in Taiwan.

So why isn't that a standard treatment now? The abstracts of both studies
indicate they were looking at existing antiherpetic treatments.

~~~
iElectric2
Because internet news spreads quicker than doctor gossip? Since the side-
effects with some of the antiviral drugs are almost negligible, you can just
but those and try :)

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gameswithgo
I know I have herpes simplex 1, it has a few times manifest itself as pinkeye
or cold sores in times of stress for me. Is it possible I could get acyclovir
or some other anti-viral prescribed? Or is it only used when the virus is not
dormant? Is there any thing you can take long term to reduce the viral load,
or eliminate it?

~~~
kennywinker
The occurence of HSV-1 and HSV-2 together is around 90% of the population. The
occurrence of alzheimer’s is insignificant compared to that. So, clearly just
having hsv doesn’t mean you’re going to get alzheimer’s. Ideally you’d be able
to test for the presence of risk factors before taking a preventative drug
(with potential side effects) for the rest of your life.

~~~
gameswithgo
yes, I understand, but I would also like to not have the entire lining of my
mouth and tongue obliterated for 3 weeks again. :D

also I wonder if the fact that I'm actually experience outbreaks every now and
then might imply I'm more at risk.

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ncmncm
I've seen an assertion that brain surgeons have seven times the risk of
developing Alzheimer's as other surgeons (although I can't seem to find it
now). If true, that would support an infection hypothesis, though not
necessarily implicating HSV.

Valacyclovir is cheap and safe enough that it could be given "on spec", to a
very large number of people at risk. If it works, it works.

One might interpret the delay in acting on the infectious hypothesis here as a
result of the overwhelming majority of Alzheimer's researchers having no
experience with virology. What should you do when you discover you have spent
your career on something that turns out to have nothing to do with the cause
of the disease you have studied? Probably not try to become a virologist. The
most nimble must be casting about for other topics in brain microanatomy and
gene expression.

In ten years we might see a flowering of other results as they turn their
attention away from Alzheimer's to topics that had been neglected.

~~~
ncmncm
Aha:

[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2018/09/09/6456291...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2018/09/09/645629133/infectious-theory-of-alzheimers-disease-draws-
fresh-interest)

"Correction: Sept. 13, 2018

The initial version of this article overstated the rate at which neurosurgeons
and spouses of Alzheimer's patients develop the dementia. The risk is nearly 2
1/2 times greater for neurosurgeons, not sevenfold, and 1.6 times higher for
spouses, not six times greater. On Sept. 18, the article was changed to say
that the risk for neurosurgeons was a comparison with the general population,
not other causes of death for the doctors."

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syntaxing
A bit off tangent but I never understood why there is a vaccine for herpes
zoster (shingles/chicken pox) but not HSV1/2? Are the two viruses that
different?

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stephengillie
Previously on HN:.

\- Alzheimer's caused by dirty air.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18230932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18230932)

\- Alzheimer's caused by lack of sleep.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18228627](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18228627)

There's mounting evidence that "health news" is neither healthy nor news.

~~~
chiefalchemist
At the risk of being a cynic, patterns to date necessitate I ask:

\- Who paid for this research / article.

\- Is this cause, or simply correlation of a fair common virus?

~~~
DaiPlusPlus
The article is written by a member of a team that publishes a lot of articles
advancing this hypothesis - heck, that’s exactly what this article is about.
I’m not qualified to judge the claims on-merit, but the self-serving nature of
this article sets off my skepti-sense, and the fact this “major” revelation
doesn’t come first-published in a notable journal is the strongest hint the
research (while still useful) is probably vastly overstated.

~~~
coldcode
Makes it hard to judge, but there are occasions where peers refuse to believe
something right up until everyone accepts it, like the cause of ulcers often
being Helicobacter pylori. Peer reviewed research these days isn't always
dependable either given the for pay nature of many journals. Findings with
actual anti-virals changing the brain function of people with Alzheimers would
go a long way to showing the connection. That there is an inheritable
connection to the disease is fairly well understood so that so that would make
it more likely to get the disease wouldn't be much of a shock.

~~~
taeric
The story of what causes ulcers is truly crazy. Sounds like something from
decades ago. Hard to believe we were that stubborn.

And that is a full field of hard working individuals. I'm almost scared to
think what my own biases are. I wish there was a solid framework to approach
them, since I think most are basically invisible to the holder.

~~~
Luc
Well knowing they exist (and affect intelligent, thoughtful people, too) is
surely half the battle.

I guess Charlie Munger wrote about the kind of thing you're looking for in
'Psychology of Human Misjudgement'.

But then I heard him interviewed on Chinese TV recently, and he seemed to be
displaying some huge misunderstandings on human genetics and intelligence, and
making what I consider basic reasoning errors. Perhaps he didn't feel like
applying his knowledge of cognitive biases to this area.

~~~
taeric
I think the glib answer is that that is science. It is the best we have at
making sure we don't stay stuck on biases. It is just frustrating, because it
would be nice for the answer to be immune from the thing it protects us from.

That is, I would much prefer if science was immune to bias. Evidence is quite
clear that nothing is free of bias, though.

