Well, this is indeed a fascinating round-up. Thanks so much for doing the deep delving and summarizing the information for us. The study result I found strangest was this: “(CMP) found a significant brain age gap among a cohort of patients with knee osteoarthritis, replicated in a second cohort dataset, but not seen with other types of CMP assessed (back, neck, hip).” One would have thought that CMP of any type would offer an equivalent danger. Did the study shed any light on why knee CMP was a particular culprit?
It may be because knees are the most commonly replaced joints along with hips so it affects the statistics. Anecdotally over my career in healthcare my impression has been that more of my patients (ages 45 - 85) have had knee issues than for any other joint. But frequency doesn't necessarily correlate with the increased BAG.
"Arthroplasties are some of the most common surgeries. Surgeons perform more than 850,000 knee replacements and more than 450,000 hip replacements every year in the U.S."
Edit: I went back to re-read that section just now and saw also, "[..] the changes in MRI in people with knee osteoarthritis were also associated with memory decline and dementia during follow-up."
Interesting. Perhaps less physical activity over the years translates into knee issues due to lack of support from the weakened large muscles (quads) and it's said that being less physically active contributes to mental decline - more of a confounding factor rather than correlation or causation.
I find it very interesting that "number of live births" as a factor in BAG appears in 4 of the 5 areas studied.
I also just subscribed due to intense curiosity, and didn't realize until I attempted to comment that I hadn't yet subscribed! Thank you so much for being here on Substack, Dr. Topol!
I always appreciate your thoughtful and thorough newsletters. As a non-scientist, I’ve still gleaned much helpful information from them. In this case, when some of the content is a bit over my head, I call in my back up people. In this case, I sent it to my brother, a neuro radiologist who often does “translation” for me. 😁
Am I reading this right? Coffee and cheese are lowering my scores? And Distance to Coast? That's a measureable? (Not elevation, not amount of sunlight, etc etc). No wonder you're in La Jolla!!
Well, this is indeed a fascinating round-up. Thanks so much for doing the deep delving and summarizing the information for us. The study result I found strangest was this: “(CMP) found a significant brain age gap among a cohort of patients with knee osteoarthritis, replicated in a second cohort dataset, but not seen with other types of CMP assessed (back, neck, hip).” One would have thought that CMP of any type would offer an equivalent danger. Did the study shed any light on why knee CMP was a particular culprit?
Great point. There was no explanation for the knee OA outlier provided and I was surprised by that too
It may be because knees are the most commonly replaced joints along with hips so it affects the statistics. Anecdotally over my career in healthcare my impression has been that more of my patients (ages 45 - 85) have had knee issues than for any other joint. But frequency doesn't necessarily correlate with the increased BAG.
"Arthroplasties are some of the most common surgeries. Surgeons perform more than 850,000 knee replacements and more than 450,000 hip replacements every year in the U.S."
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21649-arthroplasty-joint-replacement
Edit: I went back to re-read that section just now and saw also, "[..] the changes in MRI in people with knee osteoarthritis were also associated with memory decline and dementia during follow-up."
Interesting. Perhaps less physical activity over the years translates into knee issues due to lack of support from the weakened large muscles (quads) and it's said that being less physically active contributes to mental decline - more of a confounding factor rather than correlation or causation.
Thanks for the added observations. It did occur to me, also, that decreased mobility would be relevant here.
I find it very interesting that "number of live births" as a factor in BAG appears in 4 of the 5 areas studied.
I also just subscribed due to intense curiosity, and didn't realize until I attempted to comment that I hadn't yet subscribed! Thank you so much for being here on Substack, Dr. Topol!
Thank you! I found that finding quite interesting along with association with birth weight for R2 and R3
I always appreciate your thoughtful and thorough newsletters. As a non-scientist, I’ve still gleaned much helpful information from them. In this case, when some of the content is a bit over my head, I call in my back up people. In this case, I sent it to my brother, a neuro radiologist who often does “translation” for me. 😁
Sorry it wasn't more easily understandable without having to call in a backup. Will keep working on that objective. Thanks.
Am I reading this right? Coffee and cheese are lowering my scores? And Distance to Coast? That's a measureable? (Not elevation, not amount of sunlight, etc etc). No wonder you're in La Jolla!!