Especially if Alzheimer's disease "runs in the family," we listen when scientists talk of ways to predict who will develop such a dreadful disease. We've heard more about the brain than we care to, with its tau proteins and plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Of course brain research is teaching us about the causes of dementia, and maybe it will eventually lead to methods of prevention or treatment. Will those advances come in time for us? For our children?
Earlier this year, research in the Neurobiology of Aging Journal explained how elevated levels of phosphorylated tau231 in cerebrospinal fluid may be used to diagnose a healthy person who will develop Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from New York University's School of Medicine said the levels could predict future memory decline and the loss of brain gray matter in the medial temporal lobe--a key memory center.
"Our research results show for the first time that elevated levels of P-tau 231 in normal individuals can predict memory decline and accompanying brain atrophy," said lead author Dr. Lidia Glodzik, an assistant research professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the school's Center for Brain Health and Center of Excellence on Brain Aging. "Our findings suggest that P-tau231 has the potential to be an important diagnostic tool in the pre-symptomatic stages of Alzheimer's disease."
Which is great.
Or at least, potentially, a great advance.
It's quite a ways off. When I go for my physical in a couple of weeks, I won't be able to ask my doctor to run this test and then...know. But there's a good chance something like this will be available if not in my lifetime, certainly within the lifetimes of my children.
We know what Alzheimer's and dementia do to the ones we love. We know how the diseases take them from us long before their bodies fail, leaving bits of their spirit and personality glimmering--only every now and then--in their eyes. One merciful aspect of the disease may be that our loved ones did NOT know what was happening to them until it already was. By the time symptoms of memory failure became evident, hopefully, they were too far gone to notice. What appears to us as suffering may be, to them, just the way life is.
Science may wind up changing that for us.
We may have the option of learning way before symptoms emerge whether dementia is part of our future. So, what if it is? What then?
Earlier this year, research in the Neurobiology of Aging Journal explained how elevated levels of phosphorylated tau231 in cerebrospinal fluid may be used to diagnose a healthy person who will develop Alzheimer's disease. Researchers from New York University's School of Medicine said the levels could predict future memory decline and the loss of brain gray matter in the medial temporal lobe--a key memory center.
"Our research results show for the first time that elevated levels of P-tau 231 in normal individuals can predict memory decline and accompanying brain atrophy," said lead author Dr. Lidia Glodzik, an assistant research professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the school's Center for Brain Health and Center of Excellence on Brain Aging. "Our findings suggest that P-tau231 has the potential to be an important diagnostic tool in the pre-symptomatic stages of Alzheimer's disease."
Which is great.
Or at least, potentially, a great advance.
It's quite a ways off. When I go for my physical in a couple of weeks, I won't be able to ask my doctor to run this test and then...know. But there's a good chance something like this will be available if not in my lifetime, certainly within the lifetimes of my children.
We know what Alzheimer's and dementia do to the ones we love. We know how the diseases take them from us long before their bodies fail, leaving bits of their spirit and personality glimmering--only every now and then--in their eyes. One merciful aspect of the disease may be that our loved ones did NOT know what was happening to them until it already was. By the time symptoms of memory failure became evident, hopefully, they were too far gone to notice. What appears to us as suffering may be, to them, just the way life is.
Science may wind up changing that for us.
We may have the option of learning way before symptoms emerge whether dementia is part of our future. So, what if it is? What then?
Watching my Dad as dementia took away so much, I can't imagine having a test that would put that burden on my shoulders unless there were something I could do about it. At the same time everytime a name slips my mind or I forget where I left the car keys, a terrible -- but unrealistic -- future looms.
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