Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 263 video address. In the unlikely event that you do not already know, Paul Klotman, MD is Baylor College of Medicine’s CEO and President. The highlights are:
- NIH has funded the development of 99.4% of all new drugs. So, go ahead and cut their budget. Let’s see what the private sector alone can do.
- The lifetime risk of dementia for Americans after age 55 is 42%. It is higher in women, adult Blacks, and people who have a specific gene variation that affects lipid transport.
- Dementia among African Americans occurs in about 25% of adults. Among all US adults, it is about 14%.
- H5N1 continues to be a concern as additional mammals appear to be vulnerable to the virus – now it is sheep and South American bush dogs (not actually dogs).
- Older folks (geezers like me) appear to be less vulnerable to H5N1 bird flu because we have been exposed to similar Influenza strains decades ago and thus have some natural immunity.
- We now have 483 cases of Measles in the US. 14% of them have required hospitalization. 422 of those cases are from Texas, but there have been outbreaks in 19 states.
- Threats to the Medicaid program may result in lower vaccination rates for children.
To this digest, I would add that “dementia” is not a specific disease but rather a syndrome of cognitive dysfunction that can arise because of several illnesses. The most common in the USA is Alzheimer’s disease which involves the deposition of amyloid proteins in certain critical areas of the brain.
Among African Americans, vascular dementia is more common because of genetic and dietary factors that predispose to hypertension and metabolic syndrome. Then there is Fronto-temporal dementia (a group diseases) that can manifest as loss of speech (think Bruce Willis), affective (mood) changes, and cognitive decline.
In reality, many individuals have mixed dementia with the most common probably being Alzheimer’s disease with vascular injuries (strokes).
Dr. Klotman notes that, with a few important exceptions, human life expectancy has increased every year since the introduction of sanitation. The rub of getting to live longer is that we live long enough to develop dementia. Merde!