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Redefining Alzheimer's Disease after 27 years!

4/20/2011

3 Comments

 
We know most everyone here follows the Alzheimer's Association, but this is just too important to miss - first significant update to AD guidelines in almost three decades!

Please review the report here: Alzheimer's Association | Research Center

Top two notable differences from previous discussion and guidelines are:

1. Redefining the three stages of the disease now to Preclinical, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia due to AD.
2. Proposal of "biomarker tests", which will be tests that measure biological changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s, now believed to eventually be measurable years or perhaps even decades before symptoms occur.

Biomarkers are perhaps the most exciting part of current research, focusing on diagnosis far, far earlier than currently available, and allowing treatment way before symptoms show up and when it can do the most good.

Though not directly linking to a cure yet, the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) state the following goal:

"An overarching goal of Alzheimer’s doctors and researchers, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the NIA is to enable people to live long, healthy lives free of the disability caused by Alzheimer’s. There is consensus that treating the disease before symptoms occur is how this goal will be met. However, no generally accepted way exists to identify Alzheimer’s at its presymptomatic — and potentially most treatable — stage."

Even with its caveat, we still feel this is exciting news and surely shows more progress towards the day we all hope will come soon:

The beginning... of the end... of Alzheimer's Disease!
3 Comments

    Hope for the Future

    I am passionate about finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease.  I am not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training.  Still, I firmly believe that with research, innovation and creativity, we will find ways to cure Alzheimer's.  I also believe that early detection for Alzheimer's must be made available to all adults as part of their normal routine physical examination. 

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