While a stomach bug is undoubtedly an unpleasant experience, its symptoms normally disappear in a matter of a few days. But now researchers have found that a stomach bug found in a majority of people can be quite dangerous in the long term.
A common stomach bug found in two-thirds of the world population can be linked to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to a recent study by McGill University in Canada.
The research, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, analysed the health data of over 4 million people in the UK aged 50 and older between 1988 and 2019.
Researchers found that those who had contracted a common stomach infection called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) had an 11 per cent higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
So I get that research in to Alzheimer’s and dementia is important, but recently there have been so many articles about this and that, all things that every single person alive has experienced and can hardly control (from a stomach bug to lack of sleep) being “linked” to “increased risk”, it’s starting to lose any meaning.
It’s like California with its cancer warnings, but even worse - if you really really wanted to you could avoid at least a bunch of the external supposed causes, but we can’t help catching a stomach bug, or being stressed or losing sleep, and it’s not like this insight provides any cure or treatment, so why bother with a warning, who is it helping? (my gut says mostly those selling snake oil “cures”)
So far all I’ve taken from these articles:
If the list gets longer, see: reduce/manage stress.
I fear losing myself more than death. So reconciling with my mortality helps. I’m also in a state that allows death with dignity.