Saturday 21 July 2012

A landmark

Whilst I was away on holiday, this blog passed the 5000 page views mark. I'm pleased that so many people have found my efforts of interest, also that a fair proportion of readers have read multiple posts.

By far the most read posts are those on the possible relationship between dementia and the herpes virus. This could be because such a large proportion of the population carry the herpes virus and these people are concerned about a possible link. I think it's important to point out that there's no suggestion that being a carrier means that you will experience dementia at some point in your life. First, no-one has suggested that all dementia is linked to the virus and, secondly, it seems clear that other factors must also be involved in the case of carriers of the virus who do experience dementia.

If you want to read all that I've written about the herpes virus, the simplest way is to put the word 'herpes' into the search box at the top left of the blog main page and press return.

Incidentally, I'm using 'dementia' here rather than 'Alzheimer's' because I'm becoming increasingly suspicious of the whole business of diagnosing a disease that can only be confirmed post mortem. You have only to read people's experiences online to discover a common picture of shifting diagnoses and people allegedly having two or more different kinds of dementia. There can't be many other fields of medicine where there is so much confusion amongst the 'experts', who can't even decide whether the physical signs they see in brains are the causes of the disease or the body's attempt to fight it. It's incredibly frustrating.

1 comment:

  1. How about coronary disease having been caused by high cholesterol for so many years and now the change of thought to inflammation. Medical science is not perfect, for sure. I enjoy the blogs that talk about S and you and what you are experiencing, the most, but I too on momsdementia.com put alot of the research I find, mostly about caregivers and supplements and vitamins. I'm turning into a holistic believer after the bad experiences with meds and MOM. I also put my mom's life history on my blog, so if you ever look up my blog start at the beginning like I'm doing with yours so you can get her history in the correct order. Someday I may expand that and make a book about my mom's life. Just as "Gone With the Wind" chronicled a time in US history that is gone, with the big plantations and slavery and bells and balls; my mom was a part of history that few people know about, living at a "gas camp".

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