alt Hacker NewsPSA to those with family affected by dementia/Alzheimer's at a relatively early age (say <70yo): Get them tested for STDs, specifically Syphilis.
Left untreated for a very long time (decade+), it spreads to the brain and causes dementia among other things. Older generations with stigmas, taboos, or from lower educational backgrounds seem (to me) less likely to get tested, so it seems plausible.
Source: Have recently discovered this myself with a family member from their neurologist.
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> Source: Have recently discovered this myself with a family member from their neurologist.
The reason this was detected is that such testing is a standard practice with new dementia patients—among many other tests that identify etiologies of dementia.
No need for a 'PSA'.
Yeah lots of infectious things are being found to be able to cause dementia https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/dec/01/the-bra...
much of the medical profession seems a bit behind the curve on recent findings.
Also, the Herpes family (hint: most of us have HSV-1), vide "Alzheimer's risk 10 times lower with herpes medication" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17540094 and much more, https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
And "The effect of shingles vaccination at different stages of dementia" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164646 (yes, also the Herpes family).
Lenin famously died from it, you could see that obscure blank stare of a crazy person on his later photos
Flip side, if you have an older relative who, all of a sudden, seems to have a lot of symptoms that suggest dementia, have them get tested for a UTI.