Blood Test Predicts Alzheimer’s

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blood-testResearchers at Georgetown University have published a study in Nature Medicine claiming they have found a way to successfully predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease with 90 percent accuracy, thanks to a test that relies on examining fat levels in the blood. The researchers compared the blood samples of 53 people with Alzheimer’s with 53 people who remained mentally agile over five years to conclude there were significant differences in levels of 10 lipids or fats in the blood.

Studying these lipid levels was the key to predicting the disorder, though it needs to be tested on a larger sample size to be confirmed. With the ability to predict the degenerative brain disorder comes the ethical challenge of whether people would want to know they will suffer from it.

Said the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dr. Doug Brown, “If this does develop in the future, people must be given a choice about whether they would want to know, and fully understand the implications.” Read more at BBC News.

{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}


2 COMMENTS

  1. If somebody finds out that they have the disorder, is there anything that can be done to treat it?
    If there is no treatment for such a thing, why even inform the patient about it?

  2. Reply to question #!: It depends on what you mean by “treat” it. Do they have a cure to make it disappear? No. However they do have medications whose goal is to help slow down the progression of the disease.
    Reply to question #2: 1. If they can inform a patient is at least somewhat in advance, this might very well lead to paths of prevention of the disease, or ways to deter it. 2. At least if a patient is informed in advance, he/she can make plans for themselves and their family before it’s too late, such as various types of life/family/financial decisions, as well as who will care for them, where they would live & with whom, etc.

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