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Uncovering environmental exposures linked with Alzheimer’s and related dementias (hsph.harvard.edu)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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[–] 3 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Observational, so generally worthless. The 3x elderly people I know who developed dementia did none of the risk factors and most protectives. The other 20x over 75's I know who don't have dementia engage in most risk factors and little protectives.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Anecdotal evidence doesn't help you. Observations can find a trend, which can be further studied. The disease is complex, there are likely multiple factors. Think of cancer, some people smoked for decades and never got it, others died young. Doesn't mean smoking doesn't cause lung cancer

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  • [–] 1 point 1 week ago

    Yeah, I don't deny that observational studies have value. I meant this study is "generally worthless" because all of the findings have longstanding, well-known correlations to cognitive health.

    As always, all of the findings indicate poverty/wealth as the greatest underlying risk/protective, so at this point it's beating a dead horse.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Giving people dementia to test it experimentally is generally considered unethical

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  • [–] 2 points 1 week ago

    Haha. Psychopaths-advocate though; if we could deterministically give people dementia we could deterministically precent dementia.

    My bet is wealth equality/redistribution would have the greatest impact on societal mental and physical health.

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