Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease, meaning that there will be a progressive degeneration, the loss of structure or function, of nerve cells. Other neurodegenerative diseases include multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.

Tragically these diseases are all incurable and worsen over years until resulting in death. Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease usually start with the loss of memory, which develops into dementia, ending with the inability to move and control bodily processes.

In 2018, this disease claimed a catastrophic 120,658 lives and was the fifth leading cause of death among people of age 65 or older. The proportion of people suffering from this disease differs by age class: 4% of those under 65 years; 16% of those between 65-74; 44% of those between 75-84; and 37% of those over 85.

The significance of this disease has initiated a great quantity of research, both nationally and internationally, with a large portion of the studies investigating methods to better treat sufferers. You may see glints of hope within studies, but potential treatments undergo several years of testing before a product is released and made available to patients.

A very grim outlook, yet the rate at which the disease progresses can be dramatically slowed with early diagnosis. Knowing the 10 Early Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer’s may help you improve your, a loved one’s, or a friend’s life:

1. Memory loss that disrupts daily life.
2. Challenges in planning or solving problems.
3. Difficulty completing familiar tasks.
4. Confusion with time or place.
5. Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships.
6. New problems with words in speaking or writing.
7. Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps.
8. Decreased or poor judgment.
9. Withdrawal from work or social activities.
10. Changes in mood and personality.

As with all diseases if you observe any of these symptoms see your doctor immediately. More and better treatment options will be available at early detection. Unfortunately, the presence of symptoms means the disease has progressed significantly.

If only there was a pre-symptom test. Wonderfully such a test has been developed, as per this report:

“Years before symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease manifest, the brain starts changing and neurons are slowly degraded. Scientists at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (HIH) and the University Hospital Tuebingen now show that a protein found in the blood can be used to precisely monitor disease progression long before first clinical signs appear. This blood marker offers new possibilities for testing therapies. The study was carried out in cooperation with an international research team and published in the journal Nature Medicine.”

“The fact that there is still no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s is partly because current therapies start much too late,” pointed out Mathias Jucker, a senior researcher at the DZNE’s Tuebingen site and at the HIH, and head of the current study. “Our blood test does not look at the amyloid, but at what it does in the brain, namely neurodegeneration. In other words, we look at the death of neurons,”

“Normally, however, such proteins are rapidly degraded in the blood and are therefore not very suitable as markers for a neurodegenerative disease. An exception, however, is a small piece of so-called neurofilament that is surprisingly resistant to this degradation.”

“It is not the absolute neurofilament concentration, but its temporal evolution, which is meaningful and allows predictions about the future progression of the disease. We were able to predict loss of brain mass and cognitive changes that actually occurred two years later,”

“However, the test accurately shows the course of the disease and is therefore a powerful instrument for investigating novel Alzheimer’s therapies in clinical trials.”

This is a wonderful accomplishment as detection is the first part of treating a disease. Early detection will allow for early intervention and early treatment. This may give people the opportunity to plan for their future.