how do auto-immune diseases raise my risk for alzheimer's?

In as far as autoimmunity and Alzheimer's goes, Periodontal Disease (PD) has the highest co-morbidity with Alzheimer's Disease of all auto-immune disorders.  

We believe this is because: 

if you have PD, you have a type of bacteria that can also cause Alzheimer's.  We saw this in the dental clinic daily - in fact, we could frequently predict who would be suffering from dementia / or was already suffering from dementia just by looking at their periodontal-charting!  Advanced age with deep pockets over a long period of time = Mild/Moderate Cognitive Impairment or even Alzheimer's Disease.  In fact, it was rare where this wasn't the case.   Taken further, if a tooth (or many teeth) were lost due to Gum Disease then it was a guarantee that if the the individual was older (60+) they were already starting to fail cognitively.  Wow.

We will bring you more information on this in a future blogpost.  

 Diabetes - in both forms (type I and type II) - is close to the top of the list of auto-immune diseases that are linked to Alzheimer's.  

Which begs the question:  why do so many people with Alzheimer's also have Diabetes?   

We think the answer is simpler than the hard-thinking research world wants it to be: 

• We believe the parallel is due to what happens to diabetics as this disease progresses.    

One of the most irritating symptoms of Diabetes is xerostomia - commonly known as Dry Mouth.     

Now, when you have no/low saliva, you will inevitably develop Periodontal Disease because the lack of saliva (saliva is what keeps the mouth PH basic), the PH of your mouth becomes acidic.

And when the PH  of your mouth becomes acidic, the bad (harmful) bacteria overgrow and the good (harmless) bacteria die.  Tooth decay and Periodontal Disease (PD) ensue, the later of which (as we just covered) increases your risk of developing Alzheimer's. 

For the longest time, researchers have been documenting a strong association between this form of autoimmunity and Alzheimer's Disease.

We agree that Sjogren's Syndrome (SS) is risk factor - 

• partly because it's strikes women far more than it does men -  see risk factor: biological sex.   

• But mostly because of what it does to the body.  Just as with Diabetes, SS, by nature, reduces saliva (among other autonomic functions) and in so doing, reduces the oral PH.  This, we contend, is why this disease appears to be a strong risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease. 

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), which is the most common form of Lupus, is on the list of diseases associated with later development of dementia and/or Alzheimer's Disease.  

This study found that SLE sufferers have a 15 times higher risk of developing Vascular Dementia and/or Alzheimer's.  Keep in mind, gender could be an underlying factor as women suffer from this form of auto-immunity 9 times more than men  [With an even higher incidence during the reproductive years].  

Hoshimotos Thyroiditis (low thyroid) is on this list, not because of it's overlap between autoimmunity and Alzheimer's but because women suffer from this form of auto-immunity 6 times more than men.  Again, it may not be about the disease in this instance, but the cross-over with the another stronger risk factor:  being genetically female.   

 Before we go, another auto-immune disease that has come up in literature as potentially being associated with dementia and Alzheimer's Disease is Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).  Once again, we feel the gender aspect of this disease is what's responsible for the cross-over as women are 2/3rds more likely to develop this condition than men.  And unlike Alzheimer's Disease,  the number of cases of RA is actually quite stable.   What peaks our interest though, is that low SES (socio-economic-status) was identified as a contributing factor to the development of RA.  In this study,  "Prevalence Trend and Disparities in Rheumatoid Arthritis among US Adults, 2005–2018",  the authors attribute the stress that comes with living in poverty as a potential reason for higher levels of this disease being found in those living in poverty.  And that the human stress response may be what's causing the auto-immune response:

"Currently, stress is recognized as an important risk factor in the pathogenesis of autoimmune rheumatic diseases because human stress response might have an effect on the immune responses system and lead to pro-inflammatory effects and related diseases"

Just so we are clear, chronic stress (which can also be caused by depression, anxiety, a bad marriage, chronic illnesses) has been proven to impact our body's overall PH...which will be covered in a future blogpost that we will link to here.