Links between gum disease and Alzheimer's

Did you know there's a link between periodontal infection and Alzheimer's? The link is primarily mediated through systemic inflammation and the actions of specific periodontal pathogens. Chronic periodontitis can lead to systemic inflammation, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Several studies have highlighted the role of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1β and TNF-α in this process. These cytokines, upregulated during periodontal infections, can promote a pro-inflammatory environment in the brain, contributing to AD-like pathology and cognitive dysfunctions.[1]

Porphyromonas gingivalis, a key pathogen in periodontitis, has been shown to induce systemic inflammation, amyloid β protein deposition, and tau protein hyperphosphorylation, leading to AD-like lesions. This pathogen can alter gut microbiota and disrupt the gut-brain axis, further exacerbating AD pathology.[2] Additionally, bacterial membrane vesicles from P. gingivalis can cross the blood-brain barrier, initiating physiological changes associated with AD.[3]

Moreover, chronic systemic exposure to P. gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (PgLPS) has been shown to promote neuroinflammation and tau hyperphosphorylation in animal models, leading to cognitive deficits.[4] The presence of periodontal pathogens in the brain, such as P. gingivalis, has been detected in autopsy specimens from individuals with AD, suggesting a direct microbial involvement in AD pathogenesis.[5]

In summary, the link between gum disease and Alzheimer's disease is supported by evidence of systemic inflammation, direct microbial invasion, and the resultant neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative processes.

1. IL-1β and TNF-α Play an Important Role in Modulating the Risk of Periodontitis and Alzheimer's Disease.

Wang RP, et al. J. Neuroinflammation. 2023;20(1):71. doi:10.1186/s12974-023-02747-4.

2. Porphyromonas Gingivalis Induces Disturbance of Kynurenine Metabolism Through the Gut-Brain Axis: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease.

Zhu H, et al. J. Dental Research. 2025;:220345241303141. doi:10.1177/00220345241303141.

3. Bacterial Membrane Vesicles: The Missing Link Between Bacterial Infection and Alzheimer Disease. Butler CA, et al.

The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 2024;230(Supplement_2):S87-S94. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiae228.

4. GSK3β Is Involved in Promoting Alzheimer's Disease Pathologies Following Chronic Systemic Exposure to Porphyromonas Gingivalis Lipopolysaccharide in Amyloid Precursor Protein Knock-in Mice. Jiang M, et al.

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. 2021;98:1-12. doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2021.08.213. 

5.Porphyromonas Gingivalis and Alzheimer Disease: Recent Findings and Potential Therapies.

Ryder MI. Journal of Periodontology. 2020;91 Suppl 1:S45-S49. doi:10.1002/JPER.20-0104

Pileated tongue

Cool high-resolution video if a Pileated woodpecker's tongue

https://youtube.com/shorts/rs_rx6JvsbQ?si=AZWdcDXYE2ksbdDp

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19QgFPyGex/

NYTimes: 36 Hours in Dubai

36 Hours in Dubai https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/05/travel/things-to-do-dubai.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Lots of interesting things to do in Dubai. Glad NYT went there to investigate. 

Wing Walker repairs

This footage is amazing to me. It seems almost impossible to climb for one plane to another mid-flight: the wing of the plane she leaves would rise up while the wing she climbed onto would drop, and it would take very skillful reckoning by both pilots to prevent the wings striking each other - let alone the risky repair she went on to do. 

https://youtu.be/qW98Ji6hHmY?si=LYB6TNXvZfNSYx2o

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/193cCsuDnF/

Hiccup cure

A simple way to stop hiccups is to take three deep breaths in quick succession without exhaling between them, then hold your breath for 15-30 seconds before slowly exhaling; this essentially "resets" the diaphragm spasms causing hiccups by forcefully stimulating the phrenic nerve that controls it. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/neuroscientist-explains-new-way-of-stopping-hiccups-in-just-two-steps/ar-BB1iZmaz

Mexico City has preserved an ancient near-perfect farmland

https://youtu.be/86gyW0vUmVs?si=m5J9dlsXzFFs1rzs

An intensely rich biomass created over millennia from floating islands in a landlocked (endorheic) lake. 

Recycling wind turbine blades

Crushing up old wind turbine blades into material to make concrete stronger and more durable road surfaces. 

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-retired-wind-turbines-to-roads

Why US can't use the oil it produces

https://youtu.be/veTbuLu7znc?si=nB9T0wsCS7kw9eHr

I found this so interesting. When people say "We need energy independence," it actually can't happen...because we don't have the kind of refineries to process the type of oil we produce, and there's way too much red tape and expense to change the types of refineries we already have. It would be prohibitively expensive to convert domestic refineries to handle the type of oil we produce. 

Smoking a beehive

https://youtu.be/BEP963kAWGI?si=EjNsxdSLa7j1Cnjm

Watch the amazing exodus at 7:35 once the queen has been transferred - thousands of worker bees migrate into the new hive. 

Why does smoke calm bees? 

Though scientists are not 100% certain, the smoke is believed to work in two main ways:

1) By blocking the bees' pheromone sensitivity. This means that the intruder alert/attack message isn't spread around the hive, reducing the risk of stings.

2) By stimulating the bees' instinctual response to wildfires. When bees believe a fire is coming, they fly into the hive and start gorging themselves on honey, in preparation for leaving the hive to search for a new home. So, the bees are contained and distracted while the beekeeper works. 

https://bee2bee.com.au/beehive-smokers-honey-bees/#:~:text=Why%20does%20smoke%20calm%20bees,be%20less%20likely%20to%20sting!

Ahhh - coffee...in unique ways

https://youtu.be/pVh6yN36M0A?si=QPghJIiRZuwqI61E

I really like the idea of the Mexican coffee . 

0:57 "Cafe de olla" (pot coffee) with sugar, cinnamon and orange peel. 

Also, 2:01 coffee with cheese in Sweden. 

And, 3:38 "egg coffee" in Viet Nam, developed when milk was rationed in the 1970's, with the whipped egg yolks providing a "fatty, sweet & savory" accompaniment to the coffee. 

Inside Africa's food forest mega-project.

I find this kind of "desert greening" project fascinating - seems like a great humanitarian investment that really involves local people in their future. 

2:28 "in the Sahel we find an age-old water harvesting structure called the "half moon." This simple structure has capacity to store this water [as it] soaks down into the ground." 

8:12 "this diverse perennial poly-culture here provides types of foods that can be harvested in the dry season...

8:44 the "Great Green Wall" is actually rebuilding the ecological matrix of a region"

11:21 "when you do this type of land treatment, your actually helping areas [further] downstream because [not only is] this water soaking in them you also get this [arid] wind protection, so for every hectare that you restore, you actually affect three times that amount of land."

https://youtu.be/xbBdIG--b58?si=EFxWKgI80IeORjwQ

Eddie Murphy discovers what it's like to be a white man

Eddie Murphy finds that white people get bank loans for free and enjoy parties on the public bus. 

https://youtu.be/l_LeJfn_qW0?si=TvifcOJOfpdryjb8

Why do some bad traits evolve, and good ones don't?

I find this whole question intensely interesting. There are many interesting answers in the thread, but this one is pretty succinct. 

During the process of selection, individuals having disadvantageous traits are weeded out. If the selection pressure isn't strong enough then mildly disadvantageous traits will continue to persist in the population.

So the reasons for why a trait is not evolved even though it may be advantageous to the organism, are:

There is no strong pressure against the individuals not having that trait. In other words lack of the trait is not strongly disadvantageous.

The trait might have a tradeoff which essentially makes no change to the overall fitness.

Not enough time has elapsed for an advantageous mutation to get fixed. This doesn't mean that the mutation had not happened yet. It means that the situation that rendered the mutation advantageous had arisen quite recently. Consider the example of a mutation that confers resistance against a disease. The mutation wouldn't be advantageous if there was no disease. When a population encounters the disease for the first time, then the mutation would gain advantage but it will take some time to establish itself in the population.

The rate for that specific mutation is low and therefore it has not yet happened. Mutation rates are not uniform across the genome and certain regions acquire mutations faster than the others. Irrespective of that, if the overall mutation rate is low then it would take a lot of time for a mutation to arise and until then its effects cannot be seen.

The specific trait is too genetically distant: it cannot be the result of a mutation in a single generation. It might, conceivably, develop after successive generations, each mutating farther, but if the intervening mutations are at too much of a disadvantage, they will not survive to reproduce and allow a new generation to mutate further away from the original population.

The disadvantage from not having the trait normally arises only after the reproductive stage of the individual's lifecycle is mostly over. This is a special case of "no strong pressure", because evolution selects genes, not the organism. In other words the beneficial mutation does not alter the reproductive fitness.

[Koinophilia is an evolutionary hypothesis proposing that during sexual selection, animals preferentially seek mates with a minimum of unusual or mutant features, including functionality, appearance and behavior.]

Koinophillia resulted in the trait being unattractive to females. Since most mutations are detrimental females don't want to mate with anyone with an obvious mutation, since there is a high chance it will be harmful to their child. Thus females instinctually find any obvious physical difference unattractive, even if it would have been beneficial. This tends to limit the rate or ability for physical differences to appear in a large & stable mating community.

Evolution is not a directed process and it does not actively try to look for an optimum. The fitness of an individual does not have any meaning in the absence of the selection pressure.

https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/35532/why-do-some-bad-traits-evolve-and-good-ones-dont

Drug side effects - put to music... Lol

https://youtube.com/shorts/eGhAlNnDDmY?si=HBlAHff7B276xVja

Best use of AI yet - Protein folding by AI in intriguing sequential steps

https://youtu.be/P_fHJIYENdI?si=VvmbF2d2nlo-s6cM

Using AI to solve protein folding problems at an astoundingly faster rate than previously thought possible, suggests that other bedding human problems like climate change and cancer treatment and congenital disease might be similarly solved. 

Leopards scamper up into trees with their massive prey to avoid theft

https://youtu.be/V21AX2qwL5E?si=rEvMjbpMa59DFzWw 

Dry wick for soft ground under buildings

https://youtube.com/shorts/phaeWdNflDg?si=j1OXdsaYX9QwwzBW

Would this work? What prevents the tube from collapsing? 

The primary goal is to accelerate the consolidation of saturated, fine-grained soils like clays and silts. These soils hold water tightly, leading to instability and potential foundation issues.  

Wick drains provide pathways for water to escape these soils. 

The drains consist of a core that allows water flow, surrounded by a geotextile filter that prevents soil particles from clogging the drain. 

By providing these drainage paths, water is drawn out, and the soil compresses, increasing its stability.

Used in combination with pre-loading, or surcharging, wick drains (PVDs) evacuate pore water from soft, compressible soils to induce consolidation and settlement. This allows for expedited construction, which can begin in as little as one to three months as opposed to much longer wait times if wick drains are not used.

The reduction of water content of the saturated layers allows the soils to better accommodate superimposed loads and minimizes future settlement. - Menard company

Funny comedy about fonts - Elle Cordova

https://youtu.be/BXbW42uTKYo?si=B7V3V-WCBM8o-RlL

Using AI to make management tasks specific

https://youtu.be/yqq_U2fxd2U?si=7s5gZZ3r8xiS9VA2

Interesting approach taking advantage of several AI engines in sequence to summarize specific journal articles that give evidence-based results rather than just spewing out generic platitudes. 

Japanese desserts

https://youtu.be/C_SPzLGSOB4?si=Pp6WxQQAJa2lMvbs

2:55 KitKat is close to the Japanese phrase "kitto katsu" [you're bound to win] which may have helped it gain popularity. 

6:10 mochi pounding

8:35 Wagashi are beautifully, intricately molded sweets. 

11:35 white strawberries come from Karatsu, between Fukuoka and Fukushima 

Improving efficiency at container ports

https://youtu.be/rwD7aZcxKvc?si=DhgayjchmgaQKM8Y

6:30 since the pandemic, we are moving containers from ship to train 50% faster, and from ship to destination 75% faster.