Alzheimer's: Carriers Of Risk Gene Show Brain Changes In Their 20s
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Dramatic developments in genetics research and the availability of commercial genetics tests have put us in a very modern predicament-we can now find out (quickly, easily and cheaply) whether we personally hold genetic risk factors that put us at a substantially increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. In addition, we have recently shown that brain changes can be identified in people holding these genetic risk variants as early as 20 years old.
Should we be testing ourselves? Should we worry? No. Here's why:
Genetic research has revealed that some individuals carry variants of specific genes that confer an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in later life. For example, carriers of the I4 variant of the APOE gene are approximately three to eight times more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease after age 60 than individuals without this variant. The more variants, the greater the risk-with a maximum of one inherited from each parent.
[...] The next step for our research is to find out what leads some people at "higher-risk" to go on to develop these early brain changes, but not others. Do these people exercise or sleep less, maintain a poorer diet, or have poorer social relationships? Many possible answers involve lifestyle factors that could potentially be altered to "buffer" individuals against their genetic risk.
The only way to properly understand which lifestyle factors may have such a protective effect, is to study large numbers of people with varying degrees of genetic risk over several decades.
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