So apparently talking a lot on your mobile phone and smoking are good ways to prevent Alzheimer's disease. Kuwait should have the lowest rates of dementia in the world!
However take all this with a pinch of salt. The ADRC study is very preliminary and only done in a small number of mice that are genetically modified. Human brains are different and the mutant mice might have disease biology that is different to the naturally occurring disease. Also, there's a study that shows that smoking doubles your chances of getting Alzheimer's. Older studies, that demonstrated that smokers are less likely to have Alzheimer's disease were retrospective studies that were aided by the fact that smokers die younger than non-smokers and hence die before they reach old age, which would put them at a higher risk of developing the disease.
Very interesting indeed! So we better keep using our mobile phones all the time! I personally overuse it, does it mean my brain is protected from dementia?! I think I agree with you regarding the difficulties of extrapolating these data from mice to humans, but also there is another problem! if our hypothesis is true about the multifactorial theory of Alzheimer's pathogenesis, then it should be a combination of factors that interact together to trigger the disease. For example, smoking is one infliencial factor as you mentioned. But also antihypertensive treatment, according to a meta-analysis of RCTs in Lancet neurology (Aug 08 issue; HYVET) suggests that anti-hypertensive treatment actually prevent dementia. In addition, dancing and playing board games and solving puszzles were described as beneficial factors. So, it could be (and we're only speculating here) that people who have less of these protective factors (e.g. untreated HTN, low wellbeing activity, does not own a mobile!!) are more predisposed to develop dementia. But this is of course a very broad statement, and preliminary case-control studies need to evaluate the link first, followed perhaps by cohorts studies before we can believe these statements fully.
ReplyDeleteBut a very interesting finding, is that the transgenic mice set to develop beta amyloid and exposed to electromagnetic field had a lower load of senile plaques (beta amyloid), compared to their transgenic counter parts which werenot exposed to radiation.
An observational study to look at the relationship between Alzheimer's and mobile phone use would provide further clues.
does anyone know whether mobile use is truly associated with brain cancer? I don;t buy this stuff but would be interesting to see whether there is any convincing evidence!
meanwhile, I'll double my abuse rate of my mobile having got this excuse!!!
THANKS for post - really interesting!
Ayoub Dakson
Thanks Ayoub for your insightful reply! I think some diseases that are classed as multifactorial, possibly have a single cause but we haven't identified that cause yet. Peptic ulcers come to mind, which have always been thought to have a multifactorial cause and people were told it was due to smoking, alcohol, stress, diet. Now we know they have a single cause, H. pylorus. Similarly, myocardial infarctions have recently been linked to a strain of chlamydia.
ReplyDeleteYou are right in that mobile use has been linked to some brain cancers, however to truly prove a conclusive link you would need to carry out a long-term prospective cohort study in a large group, which would take 20 yrs + (similar to the study that Sir Richard Doll did to link smoking to lung cancer). As of yet, no such study has been carried out.
Sarah