Breakthroughs in preventing and detecting Alzheimer’s disease can’t come soon enough for the 5.3 million Americans who have the mind-wasting disease. But hopeful advances are being made in both areas.
New tests are being developed that detect the disease earlier than ever before — and scientists believe that the earlier treatment can begin, the fewer brain cells will be lost.
And in the area of prevention, the newest studies show that specific nutrients and even common medications prevent or retard the increase in toxic proteins associated with the disease. Here are the latest breakthroughs in detection and prevention.
1. Blood test
A simple blood test is being developed that uses information about more than 100 proteins combined with other information, such as whether or not patients carry a key gene called APOE4 known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s.
"Our overall success rate of detecting those with Alzheimer's disease is 94 percent,” Sid O’Bryant of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, told Reuters. “Our overall correctness of classifying those without Alzheimer's disease is 84 percent.”
