Blood test for Alzheimer's at early stages

marionq

Registered User
Apr 24, 2013
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Scotland
On the BBC app this was discussed this week although I posted a similar item on TP several years ago. It is applicable in families where there is a history of this disease and researchers believe that the plaques show up on the brain as much as twenty years before diagnosis.

I am certain of it within my husband's family. John was a non smoking, light drinker, very slim and fit man who loved learning languages especially German. He did everything right but his father, grandfather and 3 older brothers all got Alzheimer's so there was no escaping it. In his mid sixties I noticed he was unhappy at work and as I was earning two and a half times his salary I wanted him to retire. He wouldn't until I retired too so I did in my early fifties. For two years we travelled a lot and did all the things we enjoyed. Then he began to make bad decisions and judgements which I put down to simple aging and maybe failing hearing.

For the first time in a long marriage he chose to listen to bad advice instead of discussing and coming to an agreement with me. This began a worrying downward spiral which ten years later couldn't be ignored and eventually led to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's with all the classic symptoms.

He died seven years later after breaking his hip. Now I know nothing could have stopped all this but if this research is right then there may be a time in the not too distant future when certain families could be tested at an early stage and these plaques and tangles in the brain stopped before they do irreversible damage. The key of course is how to stop them.

Sad to say I am now something of an expert at spotting early signs of dementia in others. A skill I never wanted.

Alzheimer's: 'Promising' blood test for early stage of disease https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53567486
 
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Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
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Kent
Do you think John`s family presented with the same or similar behaviours @marionq ?

The reason I ask is although my mother and father both had dementia I didn`t recognise early signs in Dhiren because they were all different forms of dementia and so I presume, not . My father had Hydrocephalus , my mother had Alzheimer`s and Dhiren had Alzheimer`s and Vascular mixed.

Because of these differences I doubt the dementia is familial.
 

marionq

Registered User
Apr 24, 2013
6,449
0
Scotland
John was one of the youngest so I wasn’t present when the others were at early stages which is why I was t sure myself when he first began to display odd behaviours. Talking to relatives later I found that like me they had covered up for years what was almost certainly the early stages of this disease. When it is an inherited illness like Alzheimer’s can be then I think there may be a chance to do something about it in the future - I hope so. Vascular and other types have their own complications and causes.
 

MaNaAk

Registered User
Jun 19, 2016
11,754
0
Essex
Since caring for dad I have found questioning forgetfulness in other. I have mentally asked myself is it just forgetfulness?

MaNaAk