Did the ancient Greeks and Romans experience Alzheimer's?

Here&#x27;s the abstract of the actual paper: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;38277296" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;38277296</a><p>&gt; &quot;Conclusions: The modern &#x27;epidemic level&#x27; of advanced dementias was not described among ancient Greco-Roman elderly. The possible emergence of advanced ADRD in the Roman era may be associated with environmental factors of air pollution and increased exposure to lead. Further historical analysis may formulate critical hypotheses about the modernity of high ADRD prevalence.&quot;<p>Air pollution has near-zero explanatory power, though. See: &quot;Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer&#x27;s disease and other dementias, 1990–2019&quot; at: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frontiersin.org&#x2F;articles&#x2F;10.3389&#x2F;fnagi.2022.937486&#x2F;full" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.frontiersin.org&#x2F;articles&#x2F;10.3389&#x2F;fnagi.2022.9374...</a><p>&quot;High-income North America&quot; has the highest age-standardized incidence rate, whereas smog-shrouded South Asia has the lowest. East Asia, infamous for industrial and urban air pollution, is also fairly low on the list. From this data, there&#x27;s apparently zero correlation between pollution and incidence rate.

Maybe this is an interesting article in this context:<p><i>„They Were Labeled Witches. They Just Had Dementia“</i>, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;narratively.com&#x2F;they-were-labeled-witches-they-just-had-dementia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;narratively.com&#x2F;they-were-labeled-witches-they-just-...</a><p>Discussed in 2021: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27343868">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27343868</a><p>This might be interesting because here people with dementia were <i>not</i> classified as suffering from cognitive impairment but as witches. It went as far as considering dementia purely a white people disease that didn’t occur in Africa. Maybe the Greeks and Romans did similar mistakes (e.g. treating them as seers, oracles or such)?

This article uses the example of the Tsimané people of Bolivia as a model for pre-industrial society, and notes that a very low percentage of older Tsimané experience measured dementia (something like 1% compared to 11% in North America). But it&#x27;s also the case that the at-birth life expectancy of a Tsimané person is quite low compared to the rest of North America; a smaller percentage of Tsimané survive to the age at which Alzheimers becomes a major epidemiological issue in modern societies. How does a researcher account for that? It seems like it could be a confounder.

I&#x27;m curious about the day to day environment the Tsimané live in since I can see a relationship between dementia and increased accidental deaths in more dangerous environments. Let&#x27;s say you need to walk 5 miles a day through a predator infested jungle for water. Getting lost one day due to an episode of dementia could easily kill you. Same for eating a poisonous plant or drinking water from the wrong source or even getting a simple cut that becomes infected due not paying attention. The study used 65 as a cutoff which is before most physical deteriorations so individuals are likely still self-reliant.

&gt; with sedentary behavior and exposure to air pollution largely to blame.<p>Both of my grandpas worked manual labor their entire lives. One had Alzheimer&#x27;s, the other started to develop dementia but is on medicine now.<p>Interesting thing to note, both were extremely intelligent. Seems like the more intelligent of my extended family were also more likely to have memory issues.

There is evidence that cardiovascular exercise results in neurogenesis which results in lower incidences of dementia in older adults.<p>This is speculation but it wasn&#x27;t until the past 70 or so years that large amounts of people were able to be sedentary.<p>I know the &quot;simple explanation for why everything is fucked up&quot; answer is almost always wrong but I&#x27;m very convinced that lack of walking is a major contributor to all of this stuff.

Alzheimer&#x27;s is a prion disease. Prions are proteins that cause other proteins to misfold. What&#x27;s interesting is that most prion diseases are transmitted through ingestion or physical contact - possibly there&#x27;s a correlation with population density and&#x2F;or sanitation. It&#x27;s also possible that there are low occurrences in ancient populations because most people died of other things. For example, 200 years ago bacteria diseases were the most common cause of death. Now that we have conquered most infection disease the primary cause of death now is cancer and cardiovascular issues.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-023-02768-9" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;s41591-023-02768-9</a>

The first part of Book 3 in Marcus Aurelius&#x27; Meditations has this description of &quot;dementia&quot;.<p>... If dementia sets in, there will be no failure of such faculties as breathing, feeding, imagination, desire: before these go, the earlier extinction is of one&#x27;s proper use of oneself, one&#x27;s accurate assessment of the gradations of duty, one&#x27;s ability to analyse impressions, one&#x27;s understanding of whether the time has come to leave this life - these and all other matters which wholly depend on trained calculation. So we must have a sense of urgency, not only for the ever closer approach of death, but also because our comprehension of the world and our ability to pay proper attention will fade before we do.

Paper about Alzheimers and the Tsimane people: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1002&#x2F;alz.12626" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1002&#x2F;alz...</a> Notable quotes:<p><pre><code> as most dementia is found among individuals ≥ 75 years of age, the pyramid-shaped age structure of the Tsimane and Moseten populations means that the crude prevalence would be expected to be low. Relatively low exposure to traffic and industrial sources of environmental pollution are offset to an unknown extent by cooking fires and biomass burning. Evidence is converging as to the major modifiable risk factors for dementia and AD.5, [6] These include low formal education[7]; vascular factors, including midlife hypertension and diabete[8]; cardiovascular disease other than stroke[9]; physical inactivity[10]; and—a recently recognized addition—air pollution.[6] Higher coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores—a marker of atherosclerosis—is related to increased risk of dementia.[11] Evidence-based dietary recommendations for reducing risk of dementia and AD include regular consumption of fresh vegetables, fruits, and fish.[12] In addition, several microbial pathogens have been associated with AD. </code></pre> Perhaps few ancient greeks lived long enough (75+) to get Dementia. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;18359748&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;18359748&#x2F;</a> says<p><pre><code> In a study of all men of renown, living in the 5th and 4th century in Greece, we identified 83 whose date of birth and death have been recorded with certainty. Their mean +&#x2F;- SD and median lengths of life were found to be 71.3+&#x2F;-13.4 and 70 years, respectively.</code></pre>

Whats up with the fixation on air pollution?<p>Indoor air pollution was astronomically higher when people were gathered around a warm hearth.

I guess it has to do with the no social connections. I am introvert but not because of looking at the end of life I start to change myself. Internet devolopment are already taking toal on people&#x27;s mental health. I got ridoff of Facebook and Instagram long back because of this as well

&quot;Brain volume, energy balance, and cardiovascular health in two nonindustrial South American populations&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pnas.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1073&#x2F;pnas.2205448120" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pnas.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1073&#x2F;pnas.2205448120</a><p>[Significance]<p>This article explores brain volume and aging in two indigenous societies. Whereas brain volume is lower with greater body mass index (BMI) in industrialized populations, the association of BMI and non-HDL cholesterol with brain volume is largely positive, only declining with high BMI and cholesterol. This discrepancy represents a form of evolutionary mismatch we call an “embarrassment of riches” due to recent changes in diet, activity, and other environmental exposures. The minimal dementia and coronary artery disease in Tsimane and Moseten, combined with these findings, imply that aging outcomes are optimized at intermediate lifestyle values. Future research should focus on how our evolved biology interacts with conscious goals in relation to eating, exercise, and physiology.<p>[Abstract]<p>Little is known about brain aging or dementia in nonindustrialized environments that are similar to how humans lived throughout evolutionary history. This paper examines brain volume (BV) in middle and old age among two indigenous South American populations, the Tsimane and Moseten, whose lifestyles and environments diverge from those in high-income nations. With a sample of 1,165 individuals aged 40 to 94, we analyze population differences in cross-sectional rates of decline in BV with age. We also assess the relationships of BV with energy biomarkers and arterial disease and compare them against findings in industrialized contexts. The analyses test three hypotheses derived from an evolutionary model of brain health, which we call the embarrassment of riches (EOR). The model hypothesizes that food energy was positively associated with late life BV in the physically active, food-limited past, but excess body mass and adiposity are now associated with reduced BV in industrialized societies in middle and older ages. We find that the relationship of BV with both non-HDL cholesterol and body mass index is curvilinear, positive from the lowest values to 1.4 to 1.6 SDs above the mean, and negative from that value to the highest values. The more acculturated Moseten exhibit a steeper decrease in BV with age than Tsimane, but still shallower than US and European populations. Lastly, aortic arteriosclerosis is associated with lower BV. Complemented by findings from the United States and Europe, our results are consistent with the EOR model, with implications for interventions to improve brain health.

Since the EU already classifies Alzheimer&#x27;s as Type 3 Diabetes, its increased incidence might be in line with increased T2D incidence.

What was their average life expectancy? 45? How many were living long enough to develop Alzheimer&#x27;s?<p>Am I missing something?

So far I heard mention of unknown environmental contaminants as suspected causes for rising rates of:<p>- obesity<p>- cancer<p>- depression, ADHD, autism, gender dysphoria<p>- dementia

Maybe we can explain it by intense TV consumption in the childhood?<p>Occam&#x27;s law applies.

Alzheimer&#x27;s is a side effect of a sugar rich diet.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC9099768&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC9099768&#x2F;</a>

and what was the life expectancy during these times? 20-30 years for the population as a whole, according to GPT-4. It did mention some wealthier folk might live longer if they can avoid the many other dangers like war, disease etc...