{"id":23935,"date":"2023-06-28T12:38:44","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T19:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skepticalraptor.com\/skepticalraptorblog.php\/?p=23935"},"modified":"2023-06-28T12:38:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T19:38:48","slug":"adult-vaccines-significantly-reduce-the-risk-of-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skepticalraptor.com\/skepticalraptorblog.php\/adult-vaccines-significantly-reduce-the-risk-of-dementia\/","title":{"rendered":"Adult vaccines significantly reduce the risk of dementia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An extensive systematic review and meta-analysis have provided good evidence that adult vaccines significantly reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This offers more reasons than ever for adults to keep up with the adult vaccination schedule<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More and more evidence suggests that certain pathogenic infections<\/a> may increase<\/a> the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take a look at this new paper that links adult vaccines to a lowered risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Alena Shekhovtcova on Pexels.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is Alzheimer’s disease?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before I proceed, it’s important to describe Alzheimer’s disease<\/a> (AD). It is a chronic neurodegenerative<\/a> disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It accounts for 60-70% of dementia<\/a> cases, even though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amyloid plaques<\/a>, phosphorylated tau tangles<\/a>, and neurofibrillary tangles<\/a> are generally easily visible pathologies that can be observed by microscopic analysis of brain tissue from autopsies of those potentially afflicted by AD. These plaques and tangles seem to affect nerve functioning. Despite these observations, the precise pathophysiology, or development, of the disease is not known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since amyloid plaques are often identified in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a large amount of research is focused on attacking those plaques as a way to reverse the effect on nerves which leads to AD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The causes of AD are unknown (notice how much we do not know about this disease), although it is speculated that it is mostly genetically related, with a large number of genes that underlie this relationship. Despite the internet tropes, there is no rigorous evidence that aluminum causes AD<\/a> \u2013 I wish this belief went away fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since we have no clear understanding of the etiology and pathophysiology of AD, there are few treatments available today for the disease. Some drugs target the amyloid plaques but have not been shown to change the outcomes of AD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a couple of medications that help manage some of the symptoms of the disease, but they are certainly not cures. There are several drugs at the very earliest stages of development that may hold out hope to treat the underlying disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more thing that needs to be made clear. There are no biological tests for Alzheimer’s disease \u2014 usually, you can only find the amyloid plaques and other pathologies in post-mortem autopsies. Unfortunately. in the absence of an autopsy, clinical diagnoses of AD are “possible” or “probable”, based on other findings, such as memory tests and other methods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adult vaccines and dementia risk paper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a paper published<\/a> on 3 May 2022 in Frontiers of Immunology,<\/em> the researchers completed a systematic review<\/a> and meta-analysis<\/a> (considered the top of the hierarchy of biomedical research<\/a>) of 17 studies that included 1,857,134 participants. This study had a large patient population which improves statistical significance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All vaccine types were associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Here are some of the more significant results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n