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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1641 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 24, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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I mean, AFAIK the infectivity thing is mostly for neurosurgeons? People who are actively at risk of inhaling potential abnormal proteins.

And Alzheimer's, in particular, is quite common even without a family history. If you have the option, I would strongly advise starting on a GLP-1 drugs. It's too late when the AD has already set in, but I'm not sure if it makes a difference during the mild cognitive impairment stage, and you're better off starting early. Might be worth getting screened for APOE-4 allele if budget allows, that's a massive risk. 50% of AD cases or more have at least one of them.

It's still a relatively understudied potential cause/risk factor, due mainly to a preoccupation with the amyloid tangles and plaques in the brain, but it's gaining momentum and mainstream interest, especially as said focus has yet to produce effective treatment.

Oh, different thing than I was envisioning. I was talking about the elevated risk of neurodegenerative disorders in neurosurgeons. I mean, I doubt it's all easily condensed down to a single factor, but we quite recently found out that gum infection is linked to cardiac disease too. So I suppose I'm going to keep my eyes peeled and brush my teeth better.

It's been a fascinating rabbit hole for me personally, both because I am well aware that Science™ advances one funeral at a time, and so had been looking at alternative hypotheses for Alz/dementia, and also because out of the blue my dental hygienist started discussing the topic on her own as she had recently gotten the infodump hereself.

I sometimes wish I was a dentist (not pretty enough to be a hygienist, but I could do with a harem). Mostly for the captive audience for my lectures.

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