It ties into theories that diabetes makes people more susceptable to Alzheimer's Disease.
How can you help?
Take your new Christmas computer or PS3 and download the Folding@home program, which will use your system to crunch proteins. Yes, you to can help find a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntingdon's, cancers and AIDS by being part of a much larger distributed computer system.
Read on for more info, and ping me if you have any questions!
How does it work?: You download a safe, tested program (see link below) that is certified by Stanford University. It gets work from Stanford, runs calculations using your spare computer power, and sends the results back to the University.
Is it safe? Yes! Folding@Home rarely effects computer performance in any way and won't compromise your privacy in any way. It only uses the computing power you aren't using so it doesn't slow down other programs.
How do I get started folding for Team FreeRepublic?:
1.) Download the folding program from Stanford University's folding download page (Folding@home Client Download). Type in your desired user-name.
2.) Type in 36120 for the team number. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - if you get the number wrong, you won't be folding for team FreeRepublic!
3.) The third question asks, "Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service?" - We recommend you answer YES. Otherwise you will have to manually start the program after every reboot.
How can my computer help? Even if they were given exclusive access to all of the world's supercomputers, Stanford still wouldn't have as much processing power as they get from the supercluster of people's desktop systems Folding@home relies on. Modern supercomputers are essentially a cluster of hundreds of processors linked by fast networking. But Stanford needed the power of hundreds of thousands of processors, not just hundreds.
There's no reason to not get involved! It's free, easy, and you can know you're helping every minute without lifting a finger.
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List of Relevant Folding Links
Why Fold - Watch This !!
Extreme Overclockers Stats for FreeRepublic
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Competition (Not!!) Dummies ..Daily Kos
Dummie Folding Threads #7 #8 #9#10#11 #12
Hey DUmmies, can't ya'll post a new thread at least once a year?
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Other Useful Stuff - Links
How much are those work units worth? And what are they?
All Projects Listed
Point Summary for Workunits
Fahmon Third Party Monitoring Software
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Past FreeRepublic Folding threads
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50
Watching less of CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and etc, would go a long way to preventing brain starvation.
"A simple preventive strategy people can follow to improve blood flow to the brain is getting exercise, reducing cholesterol and managing hypertension."
It ties into theories that diabetes makes people more susceptable to Alzheimer's Disease.
Structure of enzyme offers treatment clues for diabetes, Alzheimer's
"Groundbreaking" Alzheimer's trial removes toxic brain plaques
There was no cognitive improvement. I have to wonder if the accumulation of amyloid plaques is just an effect, not the cause of the underlying pathology.
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Exercise daily, eat very little grain foods (maybe a couple slices of whole grain bread or some oatmeal a day), no sugar, no artificial foods, and take bioidentical hormones to replace yours to a young man’s or woman’s level.
Very interesting study. As someone who has been personally touched by the ravages of this disease, it’s encouraging that this kind of research is being done.
High blood glucose is a serious condition that, over time, causes severe damage to almost every part of the body - but produces NO immediate symptoms even with glucose levels several times normal.
LOW blood glucose, on the other hand, produces immediate, apparent, and severe reactions, including severe confusion, hallucinations, and unconsciousness. It is not uncommon for diabetics to have this problem when they fail to keep the balance of exercise, medication, and carbohydrate intake in proper balance. My stepfather had this problem naturally, and experienced this spontaneously a few times, including at his eldest daughter’s wedding.
I have neuropathy in both feet and lower legs, and 4 years ago I had an A1c of 7.6. My Dr. handed me a “diabetic diet” on 5 or 6 sheets of paper and prescribed a glucose meter for me to develop a baseline for treatment.
The diet was less than unappealing, and included a lot of carbs that I did not want to consume. I decided to just concentrate on reducing carb intake, with particular emphasis on the carbs that affected me most - sugar, of course, but also rice and potatoes. Bread and pasta are not quite as bad, so I have small amounts of these occasionally. And I do eat fruits daily, and a bowl of bran flakes every morning.
But I do NOT take any diabetes medication, my A1c is now 5.6, and my average glucose reading (morning and night, at least 2 hours after eating) for the past 30 days is 95.
95 is well below the 110 that is considered a good level, but is is good enough to protect from Alzheimers? It has not cured my neuropathy in 4 years. Is that because it still rises to higher levels immediately after each meal or snack, and only drops back after 2 hours? What is the effect of this on Alzheimer susceptibility?
psst . . . over here
Mucking with brain chemistry is always spooky - but this might work.