Medical I heard there is a disease where you don't sleep

[bobze]

Time-Out!

Hshields, some of your stuff does seem to be a little "fringe". The possible link to Alzheimer's and prions exists, but whether it is causative is certainly speculative. And certainly saying that it is the cause is incorrect. Alzheimer's is mutlifactorial, I suspect that prion proteins or some of their homologous coding regions play a role, but other things (like tau-MAPs) are certainly involved.

Proton-While I agree that some of the linked stuff is "fringy", the link certainly exists between protein folding disorders (like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's) and prion proteins.

All prion proteins are encoded for by the organisms genome. There is more than one (probably from gene duplication events or amino acid homology which can lead to aggregate and precipitate formation) in our genomes.

I explained above, prion proteins (where not really sure what exactly they do yet--At least most of them, but probably all play integral roles in neural functions) exist in a balance between a structural isoforms. One favors alpha helices, the other beta sheets.

When the beta sheet isoform dominates, it precipitates out of solution which drives the reaction to the right and pulls more protein out of solution. This leads to plaque and fibrillary tangle formation--Which is what causes destruction of neurons.

The general equilibrium for prions looks something like;

PrP↔PrP^sc**→PrP^sc aggregates.

**SC was the prion protein species initially discovered in the prion disease scrapie (sheep) but "PrP^sc" is now used when discussing any general form of prion protein.

Introducing PrP^sc, rather than just driving the equilibrium back to the left, causes the aggregate formation--Which forces more prion protein in the equilibrium to the prion form. For reasons unknown, aggregate deposition fuels more and more aggregate deposition and ultimately leads to a prion disease.

 

[bobze]

the problem for you is that alpha-synuclein is encoded on the human genome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha-synuclein

so your speculation about beef is unsupported. we make the protein ourselves. you could just as easily speculate that eating a vegetable causes the disease cascade to occur.

AS is found in association with amyloid plaques (it has been found with them in prion diseases like vCJD) but is not strictly colocalized. Since it thought to be a molecular chaperone it would make sense that is found there and may play a central part in the role in neurodegenerative protein folding disorders.

That we code for it doesn't really mean anything. As I pointed out earlier in the topic, because of homology, some prion species can cross species boundaries (though I am not saying that AS is a prion).

 

[EntropicLove]

Didn't lab mice die after 2 weeks of not sleeping? I believe it was related to immune system shut-down.

 

[nismaratwork]

Didn't lab mice die after 2 weeks of not sleeping? I believe it was related to immune system shut-down.

I'm not sure about the timing, but they have a much faster metabolism... it's part of why they're used for testing. In essence, they die faster from any metabolic syndrome, which is usually a part of death from true sleep deprivation.

 

[nismaratwork]

Recently scientists have said Alzheimer's and Parkinson Diseases in humans are transmissible prion/protein misfolding diseases:

Human prion diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, may be due to lack of USDA testing for mad cow disease (in 2010 only 34,386 cows were tested out of 37 million slaughtered)
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/surveillance/ongoing_surv_results.shtml

Prions in animal feeds are also a serious risk:

Livestock, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, dogs, cats, etc. are being fed the MBM (meat and bone meal) rendered remains of potentially prion infected animals. The US Dept. of Agriculture has been covering up for years the fact that 1.9 million "downer cows" - the animals most likely to have Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - Mad Cow Disease - are rendered into animal feeds and pet food.each year. Only about 5000 are tested for BSE. Rendering does not inactivate prions.



Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (mad cow) has been circulating and amplifying in the US food chain since the mid 1980s when Dr. Richard Marsh proved that farmed mink were dying from Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy (TME) after being fed downer cattle.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/andrew1804.cfm

"Could Alzheimer's be infectious? " http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/24/could-alzheimers-be-infectious/

SEE reply posted by:
Dr. Murray Waldman, coroner for the city of Toronto, Canada:
"In answer to the question how would Alzheimer’s (AD) be transmitted, I have written a book “Dying For A Hamburger” that hypothesizes that AD is spread by how we in North America and Europe feed and process meat, mainly beef.
If you study the rates of AD and its geographical distribution, you will find that rates start to soar when a country becomes meat eating (i.e. Japan and Korea in the 1960s) and rises even faster when it adopts a fast food culture (the US and Western Europe in the 50s and 60s) and remains low in vegetarian countries (India) and those without a processed meat industry or fast foods (equatorial Africa)…Murray "

See VIDEO Interview –Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease

http://www.healthydepartment.com/alzheimers-disease/interview-mad-cow-and-misdiagnosed-alzheimers-disease-4541.html

Interview with Dr. Colm Kelleher author of “Brain Trust:The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease” recorded November 16, 2004. video about 1 hour long – well worth the time

Prion diseases may also be caused by modern meat packing practices where by "a typical burger patty is packed with the meat and fat of 50 to 100 cattle from multiple states and two to four countries.

Eat two hanburgers a week — as the average American does — and in a year's time the consumer samples a stampede: 5,200 to 10,400 cattle."

http://www.think-aboutit.com/health/CattleDrive.htm

Human and animal prions in sewage sludge "biosolids" being topdressed as "fertilizer" on America's cropland, including grazing land, hay fields and dairy pastures, are putting livestock and wildlife at risk:

Don't take this the wrong way, but you've presented (valid) speculation as fact, and used highly questionable sources with clear agendas. If you expect to be anything other than dismissed a crackpot here, you need to back your statements of FACT with more than exists right now.

Beyond that, what Bobze said.

 

[Berry]

Insomniacs have been known to complain about being unable to close their eyes or "rest their mind" for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

[hemeliscus]

this is an eye opener.. so there are many people like me who have difficulty sleeping..

 

[Curl]

So if I sleep 6 hours per night everyday am I slowly deteriorating my health?