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Flu vaccination linked to 40% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease

(www.uth.edu)
231 points cachecrab | 3 comments | 27 Jun 22 19:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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lukev ◴[27 Jun 22 21:16 UTC] No.31900915[source]▶
Lots of discussion in this thread about the accuracy of the implied claim "vaccination can prevent Alzheimers", but not a lot about the correct course of action.

Which seems to me to be, unambiguously, you should absolutely be religious about getting your flu shot every year. The vaccine is known to be safe and with few side effects (or at least, safer than the actual flu, which is the bar that needs to be cleared.)

And even if it hasn't been conclusively proven that vaccines can avert Alzheimer's, you're at least putting yourself in the best possible cohort, right? Anyone familiar with Bayes' Theorem should be absolutely on board with this.

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1. ekianjo ◴[27 Jun 22 21:36 UTC] No.31901177[source]▶
This seems like a dubious recommendation. In Japan there is a large acceptance of yearly flu shots yet Alzheimer s prevalence remains high.
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2. ksb ◴[27 Jun 22 22:00 UTC] No.31901415[source]▶
Perhaps not. See this article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4095986/

> Among developed countries, Japan has the lowest prevalence of both dementia in general and Alzheimer's disease in particular.

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3. ekianjo ◴[28 Jun 22 13:07 UTC] No.31907184[source]▶
Nope, based on the same article a few lines lower:

> The burden of dementia is increasing exponentially especially in Asia-Pacific region, where more than 60% of the population reside [34]. The prevalence of dementia seems to be higher in developed countries, like Japan and Korea, than in countries with low incomes in Asia. A Japanese study found that the prevalence of dementia equals 11% among those aged more than 65 years [35, 36], whereas a Korean one found the prevalence of 6.3% [17]. Another study conducted in Korea, the Seoul study, showed that the prevalence of dementia, excluding very mild cases, was about 5.3% for overall dementia and 4.3% for AD [37].

> The prevalence of dementia greatly varies between different ethnic groups living in the same country, like in Singapore, that is probably the most multicultural region of Asia. A Singaporean study showed low standardized dementia prevalence among the ethnic Chinese (2.5% among the elderly) when compared to the ethnic Malays (4.0% among the elderly) and this finding was independent of the frequency of vascular risk factors [18]. Whereas these differences are due to different genetics or lifestyle it remains a matter of debate.