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CJD & Alzheimers

Mike

Well-known member
CJD and ALZHEIMER'S - FRATERNAL TWINS?

Officially CJD occurs once in every million people annually, world wide. This would mean about 6,200 new cases across the globe each year IF this were all the cases of this disease. Saying "if" is not meant to diminish the agony of thousands of victims and their loved ones, but there is concern that some previously diagnosed Alzheimer's cases are really CJD.

There are striking similarities in these two diseases. Both target mainly older people and the primary symptoms of each are dementia, memory loss, depression and death. Some Alzheimer's victims show the same spongy lesions in the brain. Dr. Prusiner who won a Nobel Prize for his work in prion diseases, speculates eventually Alzheimer's may actually be shown to be a TSE. These similarities have caused diagnosis problems possibly severely underrating the occurrence of CJD. Though similar in appearance to Alzheimer's, they have a different protein.

There are varying estimates among doctors and scientists about the real occurrence of CJD. At Yale, six out of 46 patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's were proven to be CJD cases at autopsy. In another post-mortem study, three out of 12 Alzheimer patients actually died from a TSE.5

Carleton Gajdusek, recipient of a Nobel Prize for his work with prion diseases, estimates that 1% of all people showing up in Alzheimer clinics actually have CJD.6

A 1989 University of Pennsylvania study showed that 5% of patients diagnosed with dementia were actually dying from CJD.7

A 1991 informal survey of neuropathologists published in the British Journal of Psychiatry put a theoretical range of 2-12% for all dementias actually being CJD.8

According to The Alzheimer's Association, there are approximately 4 million Americans suffering with this disease. Taking the absolute lowest probability of 2% misdiagnosed Alzheimer's cases, it would boost the CJD count to 80,000 just in the States.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
There are striking similarities in these two diseases. Both target mainly older people and the primary symptoms of each are dementia, memory loss, depression and death. Some Alzheimer's victims show the same spongy lesions in the brain. Dr. Prusiner who won a Nobel Prize for his work in prion diseases, speculates eventually Alzheimer's may actually be shown to be a TSE. These similarities have caused diagnosis problems possibly severely underrating the occurrence of CJD. Though similar in appearance to Alzheimer's, they have a different protein.

There are varying estimates among doctors and scientists about the real occurrence of CJD. At Yale, six out of 46 patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's were proven to be CJD cases at autopsy. In another post-mortem study, three out of 12 Alzheimer patients actually died from a TSE.5


Historically around the nation, these clinically diagnosed middle aged and elderly are the lowest % of deaths that receive a post-mortem study....This is what makes me wonder what will be found if/when an emphasis is put on them.....
 

mrj

Well-known member
Fits pretty well with ONE of my THEORIES: that the TSE family of maladies MAY be found to be a sporadic, spontaneously occuring affectation of critters having proteins (POSSIBLY able to somehow acquire, or become host to mis-folded) in their body components.

*MRJ bashers, please note: I will be leaving Wednesday for possibly a couple of weeks or more, so will not have much time to defend my theory here. Please refrain from your sometimes nasty attempts to get me to answer questions while I am away from computers, since it is impossible to reply to that which I have not read!

MRJ
 
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