It's possible that Alzheimer's may have more in common with CJD than previously thought - they both may be caused by contaminated medical procedures.
Particularly those from cadavers.
Before the US adopted a synthetic version 1985, treatment for short-stature individuals involved a hormone taken from the pituitary glands, located at the base of the brain. Extracting this hormone, however, sometimes led to the unintended extraction of amyloid-beta protein. Amyloid-beta protein is found in Alzheimer's brain plaques, and studies on animals show that an excess amount of these proteins trigger plaque creation.
The study's claims are based on limited data; it's based on only 5 dementia patients ages 38-55 (none with genetic mutations that indicated an early-onset), and over 7,700 children were given this early growth hormone from 1959 to 1985, 27,000 worldwide (Szabo). Thus, it is likely that there is a little risk for Alzheimer's, else there would be more cases.
Focus on Alzheimer's and contaminated medical procedures stems from concerns over Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which is very similar to Mad Cow Disease. People became infected after receiving hormone samples contaminated with prions - "little-understood proteins that can trigger normal brain proteins to fold into abnormal shapes," (Szabo). So far, the US has had 35 patients die from CJD after receiving a cadaver-derived growth hormone.
This is also why, until lifted by the FDA in 2022, people from the UK (which, historically, has had many cases of Mad Cow Disease) could not donate blood to patients in the US.
It's important to note no links have been found between organ transplants and risk of Alzheimer's, or that donated blood increases amyloid protein/risk of Alzheimer's.
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