Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive and degenerative brain disorder, does not cause death in itself but the progressive memory loss and loss of motor skills is what can be fatal for the patient. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
Genes are not known to have any role in late-onset Alzheimer’s, which the most common form. A small percentage of Alzheimer’s is linked to a patient’s family history and is known as familial Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer that is diagnosed before age 65 is known as early-onset Alzheimer’s and almost 50 percent of these are linked to a patient’s family history. This is known as Familial Alzheimer’s disease and in order to develop this form a person must have two first-degree relatives with a history of Alzheimer’s.
A variation of the gene apolipoprotein E (APOE) is an indicator for the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. A person who has inherited this variation may never develop the disease and a person who does not have the variation may develop it. So it is really not known who and who will not develop Alzheimer’s. Much research is been done on family history and this disease.
Neither genetic predisposition nor family history is linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s, increased age is usually considered to be the greatest risk factor. A person’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s doubles every five years between the ages of 65 and 85.
Genetic tests can be performed to screen for the known genes that cause Alzheimer’s and may detect a genetic disposition which may or may not result in a person developing the disease.
If a person has more than one family member with Alzheimer’s they may wish to speak with their family physician about genetic testing. Alzheimer’s has no cure but genetic testing can calm a person’s fears.
Photo by Dierk Schaefer, Flickr.
Wed, Jul 21, 2010
Aging, Gender-Related, Health