The standard statistical caution for these kinds of screening tests is especially important here, because while Alzheimers drugs may be more effective earlier in the disease course, none of them are "effective" in the sense of meaningfully staving the disease off; the upside to early detection is not very strong.
Meanwhile: the big challenge for screening tests is base rate confounding: the test needs to be drastically more specific the lower the percentage of the cohort that truly has the condition is. Relatively low rates of false positives can pile up quickly against true positives for conditions that are rare in the population.
The bad thing here is: you get a test suggestive of early-onset Alzheimers. It could realistically be the case that the test positive indicates in reality a coin-flip chance you have it. But that doesn't matter, because it will take years for the diagnosis to settle, and your mental health is materially injured in the meantime.
Exercise significant skepticism with neuroscience. People are credulous — and many studies are honestly shams. Like that “MIT study shows that ChatGPT reduces brain activity.”
There is a growing body of research showing that increasing slow-wave activity during sleep can improve outcomes, including sleep quality[1], memory, and correlations with amyloid response[2].
Sadly, our latest grant application did not receive funding, but we are supporting other clinical researchers with our technology. Our technology is based on more than a decade of research with 50+ published, peer reviewed studies.
We focus on sleep directly rather than the disease, which means people do not have to wait years for regulatory approvals before they can feel day-to-day benefits.
For those curious about learning more, our approach and links to additional research are on our website https://affectablesleep.com
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really cool Im sorry to hear you didnt get funding. I dont know much but isnt the problem related to what causes the build up in teh first place? wasnt it scarring or something?
Getting better sleep has been a bit of a personal quest for me. Having said that, much as I would love to get the device, having been bitten by a bunch of subscription locked devices by startups, I have (reluctantly) settled on a policy of not purchasing hardware that can't work independently of the company.
Startups are hard at the best of times, hardware startups are harder. When the company making the hardware inevitably goes under, you are left with a useless piece of plastic that you paid a ton of money upfront for, and then paid a hefty sum every month on top.
Your first FAQ answer begins extremely apprehensively. Is that even the number one most frequently asked question? I would suggest heavily revising that answer or getting rid of it completely.
Many devices today support dark mode, such as my S24. The website does not display clearly in this mode.
I'm a bit late to this, but if you're still around, I'm curious if this research would necessarily mean that people with sleep apnea or other sleep disorders (untreated or treated) are more prone to Alzheimer's as they age? I'm also curious if there's been any research on your technology being used on people who have sleep disorders. I took a look at the research you linked, but the second paper noted that people with sleep disorders were excluded from the study, and the first paper didn't mention sleep disorders or apneas at all.
I ask as someone who has sleep apnea and uses a CPAP machine.
I am not understanding this: "It can’t directly predict who will develop Alzheimer’s, but it does identify who could be at a higher risk." I get the part that it can't "directly predict", but what does it mean to "identify who could be at a higher risk"? How was "higher risk" independently diagnosed in the study in order to show a correlation between higher risk according to this test, and higher risk according to some other test?
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 34.6 ms ] threadMeanwhile: the big challenge for screening tests is base rate confounding: the test needs to be drastically more specific the lower the percentage of the cohort that truly has the condition is. Relatively low rates of false positives can pile up quickly against true positives for conditions that are rare in the population.
The bad thing here is: you get a test suggestive of early-onset Alzheimers. It could realistically be the case that the test positive indicates in reality a coin-flip chance you have it. But that doesn't matter, because it will take years for the diagnosis to settle, and your mental health is materially injured in the meantime.
Why is this pilot study in the Smithsonian?
Sadly, our latest grant application did not receive funding, but we are supporting other clinical researchers with our technology. Our technology is based on more than a decade of research with 50+ published, peer reviewed studies.
We focus on sleep directly rather than the disease, which means people do not have to wait years for regulatory approvals before they can feel day-to-day benefits.
For those curious about learning more, our approach and links to additional research are on our website https://affectablesleep.com .
Mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s changes in sleep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2024.07.002
Slow-wave activity, memory, and amyloid response https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afad228
Startups are hard at the best of times, hardware startups are harder. When the company making the hardware inevitably goes under, you are left with a useless piece of plastic that you paid a ton of money upfront for, and then paid a hefty sum every month on top.
We've taken it to heart and have decided to run a test with a one-time payment, currently only really available to HN.
The context is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45338308
Your first FAQ answer begins extremely apprehensively. Is that even the number one most frequently asked question? I would suggest heavily revising that answer or getting rid of it completely.
Many devices today support dark mode, such as my S24. The website does not display clearly in this mode.
Like other readers, I saw the subscription business and got put off.
Especially since it seems that every company eventually either "enshittifies" or goes on an "incredible journey".
I've written about some context here https://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=45338308
I ask as someone who has sleep apnea and uses a CPAP machine.
> linked to
Really putting their necks on the chopping block and making with the bold opinions, here.