Connection Between Cold Sores and Alzheimer’s Disease?
Dec 8 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Researchers at the University of Manchester in England have discovered that the herpes simplex virus - the virus that causes cold sores - is a major cause of the beta amyloid protein plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers, suggesting new methods of treatment.
Cold Sore Virus Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease: New Treatment, or Even Vaccine Possible
A majority of people are infected with the herpes simplex virus, which remains in the peripheral nervous system for the life of the person, occasionally showing up to cause cold sores. It is treated, usually when the sores show up, with antiviral agents such as acyclovir, and outbreaks can often be shortened by taking L-Lysine amino acid supplements. The discovery of a connection between herpes simplex and the amyloid plaques of AD lends hope to the idea that Alzheimer’s may one day soon be treatable with antiviral drugs, or even that a vaccine could be developed against both the herpes infection and AD.
The research team examining plaques and neurofibrillary tangles from AD patients discovered that HSV1 viral DNA was found in 90% of those abnormal protein structures. The same team had previously found that HSV1 infection of nerve cells induces deposition of the plaques. Previous treatments for this dread disease of aging have focused on symptoms of the disease rather than any root causes. As the population ‘bump’ known as the “Baby Boom” generation ages, this discovery may help to prevent a great deal of suffering both for victims of the disease and their families.
The Manchester team hope to receive funding that will enable them to investigate in detail the effect of treating early Alzheimer’s patients with antiviral agents. The paper was published in the Journal of Pathology, Volume 217, entitled Herpes simplex virus type 1 DNA is located within Alzheimer’s disease amyloid plaques.
Worried About Alzheimer’s? Go Back to School!
Nov 12 at 8:08pm by Aileen
Scientists at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that some people who have the plaques in their brain associated with AD still manage to score well on tests of cognitive ability if they spent more years in school, and put their cognitive abilities to work on a regular basis. Those with less education, who may not regularly exercise their brains than better educated people, tend to display more symptoms of cognitive decline.
Strong Educatiion Blunts Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease -
“As expected, those whose brains showed little evidence of plaque buildup scored high on all the tests. But while most participants with high levels of brain plaque scored poorly on the tests, those who had done postgraduate work still scored well. Despite signs that Alzheimer’s might already be ravaging the brains of this subgroup, their cognitive abilities had not declined and they had not become demented.”
So get busy, all you aging Boomers! Now that the nation’s economy is tanking and the government’s printing enough money to deforest the Amazon basin [snark], it’s time to go back to school! Or just audit some courses that interest you. Or take some online courses, just for fun. Download that computerized Scrabble game, do crossword puzzles, join a book discussion clutch, whatever. I want to see you put the burn to that flabby brain, whip it into shape!
…and the payoff just might be that you keep more of your mind later in your life than you otherwise would!
Precipitous Rise of Kidney Stones in US Children
Oct 29 at 5:05pm by Aileen
More Melamine in Chinese Food Products
It seems like the entire month of October has been one big Halloween Trick (not Treat) as the grotesque and blatantly illegal ‘melamine in food’ imported from China horror just keeps getting worse and worse. Some might wonder why all food products from China weren’t immediately banned back when tainted pet food cause the painful deaths of thousands of dogs and cats last year, once it was confirmed that Chinese state-owned food processors were adding the industrial plastic to wheat gluten to fool tests for protein content in this ubiquitous protein additive. Alas, imports were not banned, and now this dangerous adulterant is in hundreds of common food items.
Thousands of Chinese infants were poisoned when melamine was added to infant formulas and milk products. It’s in medicines exported and has caused sickness and death in Central and South America. Now it’s in candy and eggs and almost every wheat product from China. The US does not require country of origin labeling of foods, thus American consumers have no real way of knowing they’re buying poison.
Tainted Chinese Products Criminal Timeline traces the tainted Chinese food scandal back through 2004, and includes many other adulterants Americans have been ingesting. Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides. It is not a pretty picture, and our FDA has been criminally lax in their duty of protecting the safety of our food supply.
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