While a stomach bug is undoubtedly an unpleasant experience, its symptoms normally disappear in a matter of a few days. But now researchers have found that a stomach bug found in a majority of people can be quite dangerous in the long term.
A common stomach bug found in two-thirds of the world population can be linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study by McGill University in Canada.
The research, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, analysed the health data of over 4 million people in the UK aged 50 and older between 1988 and 2019.
Researchers found that those who had contracted a common stomach infection called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) had an 11 per cent higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
As someone who has a lot of stomach bugs over their lifetime I appreciate this newfound anxiety.
You won’t be appreciating much in a few years.
Time to become a sticky note weirdo.
Jesus
If I had Alzheimers I don’t think I’d appreciate him either.
Don’t worry you can just forget what you were anxious about
This was not a fun article to read while I’m currently shitting my brains out with explosive diarrhea.
How’s the ADHD doing? There was a link in there to an article about how having that might increase risk of Alzheimer’s.
That doesn’t help my concerns either 😂😭
Fuck
Stay hydrated.
Oh yes! I have one of those 74oz bottles of water I carry around and I usually make it through 1-1.5 bottles a day. I was an avid water-homie on the other social media site. 💦💦
Hello fellow Hydro-homie!
So I get that research in to Alzheimer’s and dementia is important, but recently there have been so many articles about this and that, all things that every single person alive has experienced and can hardly control (from a stomach bug to lack of sleep) being “linked” to “increased risk”, it’s starting to lose any meaning.
It’s like California with its cancer warnings, but even worse - if you really really wanted to you could avoid at least a bunch of the external supposed causes, but we can’t help catching a stomach bug, or being stressed or losing sleep, and it’s not like this insight provides any cure or treatment, so why bother with a warning, who is it helping? (my gut says mostly those selling snake oil “cures”)
So far all I’ve taken from these articles:
- the rate isn’t increasing, the at-risk population is getting bigger.
- More people impacted
- Manage stress where possible; slow down, don’t buy into puritanical ideals of productivity at all times
- Avoid vices
- Eat well
If the list gets longer, see: reduce/manage stress.
I fear losing myself more than death. So reconciling with my mortality helps. I’m also in a state that allows death with dignity.
H. Pylori is complicated, and the issue may be “gut dysbiosis” in most cases https://humanmicrobiome.info/h-pylori.
If 2/3rds of the world population have the bug, the link can’t be all that strong.
1 per 10 people (over 65) w/o bug - > 1 per 9 w/ bug = 11% increase in likelihood.
Made up the numbers so the math was clear.
The size of the population and the actual rates are key to this.
