I am in two minds about this:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/…ers-identified
My father had Alzheimers and we as a family suffered because the doctors in the UK were so slow to give an official diagnosis. In hindsight, it was obvious that his eccentricity had turned into dementia long before we realised. So an early diagnosis would be great. But there is no treatment…
My mum is currently with early onset dementia living in a care home. I asked myself whether a test like this would help, I'd be in two minds about doing it. On one side, a negative result would seem great but doesn't guarantee that you wouldn't develop symptoms at a later date. The test itself seemed 90% accurate too which isn't great imo. A positive result would help organise and plan for the future, something (like OP) my mum wasn't able to do. But living with the knowledge you have and are going to develop dementia, given how cruel the condition is, isn't exactly a pleasant thought.
My only take from this is, how impressive science is to develop such testing and hopefully in the future more is learned about dementia! Whether it be tests or treatment.
A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist once told me that dementia isn't simply forgetting things, though. It's more like forgetting the very crucial things that people don't normally ever forget, like your name, where you are, etc.
Anyways, I think I'd rather not know, in advance. Let me enjoy living out whatever days I have left with my mind intact without having to worry about dementia kicking in. I can see, though, how it could be useful to know such a thing if there are things you can do to try to prevent it. I've read before that drinking coffee can help prevent Alzheimer's.
It is much more difficult for the people that have to interact and take care of them than for the people themselves. Two of the people were happy in their own little world and you just had to play your part, while the other got violent from time to time and that was very difficult to deal with.
Thankfully all three died before the needed to be put into full time care because that would have required them to leave their world and that would never have gone well.
As the research itself demonstrates, every year we are learning more about treatment / research / etc. To say 'there's no treatment so what's the point in knowing' doesn't mean a treatment won't be discovered/developed tomorrow.
New drugs on the horizon…just lost a friend to alzheimers–she was totally gone for 15 years!
My mother died at 90 having had Alzheimers for at least 10 years. It was not all negative though. Once she was used to what was happening to her, she accepted it, became very mellow, and could often laugh at her situation. But for the last 6 months, she was lost to us and was basically in a semi-coma...
You may even want to investigate Dignitas or another end-of-life service.
These forms of mental decay take years, sometimes a couple of decades.
And finally, Dignitas is for non-Swiss residents. "Exit" is what you mean and they will refuse anyone with dementia or other psychological problems - and they check very carefully at all stages...
But there is still value in undertaking the research because we don't know what we might learn in the future. That's the purpose of scientific research.
I'm sure people outside of Switzerland get dementia too. Dignitas are a lot more relaxed about who they kill.
You are wrong, anyway with regards to eligibility. I checked the EXIT website:
The number of people suffering from dementia ailments such as Alzheimer's is steadily increasing. Persons belonging in this group are eligible for physician-assisted suicides only during the early stages of the disease .
Much easier to do if you know in advance that it is dementia and not some other condition.
My wife's mother is currently in that dementia stage where she doesn't recognise children or grandchildren and from vague symptoms which could have been something else to this stage was only a couple of years.
Drink less alcohol. Don't smoke. Stay mentally well and socially active. Manage long-term health conditions. Protect your hearing. Protect your head. (wear a helmet when skiing or cycling).
Most importantly these treatments target the early stages of the disease - and it will become important to be diagnosed as early as possible. That might mean testing well before you even notice something is wrong. It could be as a preventive biological screening test you do at the GP.
However, things are really, really, really at the early stage:
- there are not yet validated biological screening tests for developing Alzheimer's
- the new drugs only really work on quite narrow groups of patients
- the new drugs are not cheap
- the new drugs may have significant/critical side-effects and require constant and expensive monitoring
The ethical questions around these treatments will be profound - as for instance whether and when to test - particularly as the evidence of positive effects of the new drugs will take a long time to arrive.
The drugs are not yet approved in Switzerland and the guidelines for administration are being debated... It will still be years before even a small percentage of the population will have access to them. And these drugs only target Alzheimer disease, and there are many other causes of Dementia (Alzheimer's being the most common)...
So, what would be a good age? 60? 70? Before? Only if some symptoms arise. Otherwise, it's just anxiety and "why our health costs are going up all the time"?
The drink less, smoke less, stay active and protect your melon are not precisely exotic recommendations.
With the way that you answered in such a negative fashion - what is it on that list that sounds so unpleasant?
I'm genuinely interested.
But if you hypothesize, then take the average age at which symptoms can appear (about 65-ish) then testing could begin from 45-50 years old... if not earlier... time will tell
They help but sometimes there is a disease that is not influenced by these factors. However, at least in theory, a healthy lifestyle can make even a present disease less apparent because of reduced stress on the non-affected neurons....
Those aren't small numbers.
There are many long term studies which show these results.
I had two aunts - Sisters. Both very intelligent.
Of course this is anecdotal but one was a bit overweight and didn't exercise very much. She got dementia in her sixties and that was it.
The other went on one or two long walks everyday, in the countryside and was an avid gardener. It was part of her lifestyle and she enjoyed it.
She was still writing and debugging code in her late seventies.
She died of something else but never had any problems mentally.