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I predict that as we learn more about the long-term effects of these types of head injuries, impact-prone sports will be phased out of our society, first for children, and eventually for adults as well.  View all comments by J. Lucy Boyd |
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It's unfortunate that we still don't fully understand how Alzheimer's disease develops, and I would think that most agree there is no "single" cause to the disease. The growing list of "environmental factors" are even more poorly understood and potentially detract from the good science.
Most evidence points towards aging as the greatest "true" risk factor for AD. Thus, our lack of understanding makes the correlation of ApoE genotype and severe head injuries exactly that. For example, "John" and "I" attend school together, in the same classes, from kindergarten through med school. We both become pediatricians. From the outside, it may look like "John" and "I" synergistically increased our chances of a) getting into med school, and b) practicing the same medicine. Whereas in fact, "John" and "I" were never friends, nor were we acquainted throughout the entire time together and had no knowledge of the other's career outcome.
The same complexities apply to AD and further exemplify the heterogeneity of the disease. View all comments by Michael Myre |
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No. What would it change? If they had a certain genotype, would we then counsel them not to play certain sports? Advise them to always wear a bike helmet? There are other factors that contribute to dementia, and we don't counsel those people. Should we also tell people with a strong family history not to play certain sports? Genetic testing isn't meaningful if you don't know what you will do with the results, and this falls under this category. View all comments by Katrina Gwinn |
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