
Dementia rates decline in U.S., researchers unsure why - tokenadult
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/02/11/Dementia-rates-decline-in-US-researchers-unsure-why/8051455195428/
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proksoup
> results showing the number of dementia diagnoses in Europe has stabilized
> during the last 20 years

Diagnosis changes seem a possible contributing factor to me. We pick new names
for things and recategorize them.

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saosebastiao
Could this have something to do with the nutrition science community's
reversal of a decades old vilification of saturated fats, which tended to get
replaced with much worse trans fats? Saturated fats are absolutely necessary
for brain function, and for a long while the standard recommendation was to
avoid them like the plague.

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maguirre
Honest question. Where did you learn that saturated fats are important for
brain function?

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reasonattlm
Reduction in vascular contributions to dementia due to the same technologies
that have greatly reduced cardiovascular mortality over the past 40 years
seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

A lot of the damage to your brain is due to deterioration of blood vessels,
leading to a continual series of tiny unseen strokes, in effect, silently
destroying tiny areas of brain tissue. The level to which that is present in
an individual has been shown to correlate pretty well with cognitive
impairment.

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teslabox
The phasing-out of partially hydrogenated oils is probably more important than
any other factor.

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maxerickson
That seems way too recent to be much of a factor at all.

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sitkack
I was thinking lead paint and leaded gasoline. Whatever it was, it was
probably a long time ago.

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marvel_boy
Who knows. May be it's because the next aging generation is more mentally and
physically active. Maybe is for the leaded gasoline.

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scottlocklin
The problem with syndromes correlated with human behavior is they're vague
enough they could have 4-5 causative factors. The same is true of potential
causative factors in autism, sexual preferences or depression. It's even true
of very acute syndromes like Parkinsons disease (or cancer). We found one
direct cause of Parkinsons; fentanyl impurities -there might be 100 of these.

We want to use science to explain things, and of course, we should try, but
teasing out complex causes that may have multiple components over a lifetime
is extremely difficult.

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gwbas1c
DDT?

In Silent Spring, the author predicts that DDT will cause brain problems very
similar to dementia. There is also a statistically-significant increase of DDT
in some patients with alzheimer's.

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Houshalter
That prediction doesn't seem to be based on anything. DDT doesn't accumulate
in the body and stay for decades. A more likely environmental source would be
lead or other heavy metals. There are a million other chemicals and
environmental factors that could be correlated to it.

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irascible
Ubiquitous Internet access keeps the elderly better engaged with the world.

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x2398dh1
A few problems with the article's flow and coherence. First off, the article
conflates, "rate of dementia," with, "total incidence of dementia," which is
like confusing gallons of gas with miles per gallon. Secondly, the article
conflates, "dementia," with "Alzheimers," but - those are highly correlated
since Alzheimer's is the overwhelming cause of dementia, so we'll let that one
slide. The article starts off with a paragraph that states effectively that,
"They have been predicting there will be tons of dementia for years, but now
they are wrong!" Well Stephen Feller (author of the article), no, there is a
clearly demonstrated increase in the incidence of dementia that will occur in
the United States due to the baby boom population, which will increase the
incidence of dementia per total US population (call that IncDem/USPop), and no
one argues against that, in fact you even later state that in your article.
What this study shows, as your article states, is that among predominantly
white populations, in an above average income town (Framingham, MA), there has
been a decrease in dementia controlled by age-related factors, (call that
LocalDem/FramPop). So Dr. Sudha Seshadri, referenced in the story, likely
knows many of the mechanisms of why this happens, it's not like researchers
are totally clueless, which the article seems to open to interpretation by
using the article title modifier, "...Researchers Unsure Why." No, they are
pretty sure of some of the reasons why LocalDem/FramPop is decreasing:
basically, Framingham, being a somewhat higher than average income town, has
more exposure to healthcare education and practices, particularly to
alzheimer's reducing drugs such as Donenzepil, which delays symptoms of
Alzheimer's for an average of around 5 years if adhered to properly. There are
other health and psychological factors which tend to trace diet and well-
being...so a poor southern town, one can pretty easily imagine, might not have
had such a considerable decrease in their LocalDem/FramPop as Framingham, Mass
over the last 40 years. Also, just because one town had a lower
LocalDem/FramPop does not mean that there is a total decrease in the rate of
increase of IncDem/USPop, in fact that rate could be accelerating due to our
poor diets and expensive healthcare access. So perhaps a better title for the
article could have been, "Can a Mass. Town's Lower Dementia Rate Point to a
Better Path for the Looming US Dementia Problem?"

When someone writes a new article on the above improved analysis, you can
credit me and link back here. What we get with articles that have a lack of
rigor, like what Stephen Feller wrote, are people in the comments section
saying, "Well maybe it's because people smoke more weed," even though they may
well have read the whole article, the title and flow frames the discussion up
incorrectly.

