Genetics and Alzheimers Disease

[MichiganJim]

Dr. Steve -

It seems I read or heard that things like Sudoku and Crossword puzzles help prevent memory loss and are kind of a brain exercise. Is this true? I do three of those sudoku things almost every day but really haven't noticed any difference.

Also, my Mother did 7 years in a nursing home before she died, after Alzheimers made her forget who my siblings and I were. Are there any NEW studies that discuss heredity and Alzheimers? Are there any new preventive measures?

Thanks

Jim in Michigan

[Dr Steve]

Dr. Steve -

It seems I read or heard that things like Sudoku and Crossword puzzles help prevent memory loss and are kind of a brain exercise. Is this true? I do three of those sudoku things almost every day but really haven't noticed any difference.

Also, my Mother did 7 years in a nursing home before she died, after Alzheimers made her forget who my siblings and I were. Are there any NEW studies that discuss heredity and Alzheimers? Are there any new preventive measures?

Thanks

Jim in Michigan

Jim:

Exercizing the brain has been shown to delay admission to nursing homes, etc., and there's no downside to it.

I'm sorry to hear about your Mother. It was thought for years that Alzheimer's was just a "sporadic" disease, that affected 10 percent of the public without regard to heredity. However, new reasearch shows that although that's true for 93% of cases, 7% may well be hereditary. These tend to be cases where there was "early onset" (i.e., onset in the 50s or 60s or even earlier). If your mother had a "standard" case of Alzheimer's, you're really not at any higher risk than the rest of the population.

There is a genetic test to determine your risk for developing Alzheimer's...you have to decide what you would do with this information, though. Since there's no preventative treatment (and all this does is tell you your risk is higher), there's not much a positive test can do for you but creep you out. A negative test can make you feel better, but people with a negative screening test can still develop Alzheimer's.

So as usual, the answer is..."it depends" and our understanding of this is still incomplete.

Here's a link to an article on genetics and Alzheimer's: http://www.alzheimer.ca/english/disease/causes-heredity.htm

hope this helps


steve