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posted by mrpg on Sunday April 29 2018, @01:51AM   Printer-friendly
from the there's-always-a-secondary-effect dept.

[...] The research team studied the medical records of 40,770 patients aged over 65 diagnosed with dementia, and compared them to the records of 283,933 people without dementia. More than 27 million prescriptions were analysed.

[...] They found that there was a greater incidence of dementia among patients prescribed greater quantities of anticholinergic antidepressants, and anticholinergic medication for bladder conditions and Parkinson's.

[...] "We studied patients with a new dementia diagnosis and looked at what anticholinergic medication they were prescribed between four and 20 years prior to being diagnosed.

"We found that people who had been diagnosed with dementia were up to 30 per cent more likely to have been prescribed specific classes of anticholinergic medications. And the association with dementia increases with greater exposure to these types of medication.

"What we don't know for sure is whether the medication is the cause. It could be that these medications are being prescribed for very early symptoms indicating the onset of dementia.

"But because our research shows that the link goes back up to 15 or 20 years before someone is eventually diagnosed with dementia, it suggests that reverse causation, or confounding with early dementia symptoms, probably isn't the case.


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday April 30 2018, @01:20AM

    by frojack (1554) on Monday April 30 2018, @01:20AM (#673556) Journal

    Just surviving one kind doesn't make you immune to the rest.

    There is actually work afoot to use that rapid mutation tendency of flu as a weapon against it.

    This team, led by Ren Sun at the University of California Los Angeles, turned the tables on the mutation-prone virus. They made use of the virus’s tendency to mutate.

    They mutated flu viruses even more, and came up with a version that was especially vulnerable to the body’s immune system. At the same time, the virus became wimpy and did not spread well in the body.

    The mutations made the virus very susceptible to immune system signaling proteins called interferons.

    The vaccine should work against various strains of influenza, something that current vaccines cannot do. Right now, the annual flu vaccine is a cocktail that protects against either three or four different strains of flu. A so-called universal flu vaccine would protect against many or even all strains of flu and would, ideally, protect people for longer than just one year.

    --
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