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Comment by woeirua | Hacker News Reader

You should take these findings with a big grain of salt. Remember we don't yet even have a causal model of Alzheimer's and dementia. Amyloid plaques are strongly associated with Alzheimer's but it's not clear if they're the actual cause or if they're just a residual indicator that something else has already gone wrong in the brain. As a counterpoint to the amyloid hypothesis, we also see amyloid build ups in patients suffering from sleep apnea, and yet they don't show the hallmark signs of dementia or Alzheimers [1].

[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928103416.h...

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> As a counterpoint to the amyloid hypothesis, we also see amyloid build ups in patients suffering from sleep apnea, and yet they don't show the hallmark signs of dementia or Alzheimers [1].

I feel like the article doesn’t imply that the amyloid buildup causes the dementia/altzheimers. Just that it makes the effects worse.

>big grain of salt

Isn’t the point of the “grain of Salt” to indicate that it is trivial? If so, then by saying “big grain of salt” aren’t you undermining the point of the original statement?

I see this regularly and wonder if I am missing something.

> Isn’t the point of the “grain of Salt” to indicate that it is trivial?

No, it's from an ancient adage about food being mmore easily swallowed when accompanied by salt. The “grain of salt” you take with a dubious statement with is to make it easier to swallow.

A “big grain of salt” is a suggestion that it needs more assistance to be swallowable than a typical target of the saying.

And then there are those statements that require a salt lick.

Thank you!

I interpret it as emphasizing the colloquialism. Also it seems to wave towards the perceived significance of the statement.

"I heard Marvel is releasing three movies in 2021"

"You should take that with a grain of salt"

"I heard Marvel and DC are doing a Justice League / X-Men crossover in 2021"

"You should take that with a big grain of salt"

The phrase means the same as "be sceptical".

Vaccine contains microchips? Yeah you're going to want to take that with a major grain (pinch in the UK!) of salt / be highly sceptical about it.

https://thesaurus.plus/related/pinch_of_salt/scepticism

This can be said for a ton of other bio indicators . Similar: does alcohol consumption increase risk of cancer by X percentage or do X percent of alcoholics engage in some cancer causing activity/practice.

Are the sleep cycles of Alcoholics causing them to have weakened immune surveillance for cancerous cells or is it the direct effect of alcohol on the cells that causes them to divide incorrectly?

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