More studies about Alzheimer's disease give us a better understanding of what it is. One of these is that, unlike the belief of many, it doesn't just happen. In fact, the symptoms can appear as far as 18 years before the official diagnosis.
This has been the findings of Kumar Rajan, who currently works in Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. His study has already been published in Neurology.
His study, meanwhile, spanned for 18 years and participated by over 3,000 men and women who were of European, American, and African-American descent. Their average age was 73.
Each of the participants had to answer a series of tests that challenged their memory and thinking abilities. The exams were then repeated at least 5 more times during the entire course of the study. At the time of the first round of tests, none of the participants were diagnosed with the disease.
However, upon analyses once the tests had wrapped up, he discovered that more than 20% of white and no less than 15% of blacks eventually developed Alzheimer's.
Looking into their previous answers to the exams, these patients were actually the ones who performed the poorest as early as the first round of exams. Further, as their performance deteriorated, the risk of being diagnosed also increased. For instance, those who incurred bad scores from the thirteenth year of the study until the end may have more than 80% chance of developing Alzheimer's.
The researcher admits that the study cannot determine individual risks, but at least it can provide a more thorough observation on a certain demographic.
According to Alzheimer's Association, at least 5 million men and women in the United States will be diagnosed with the disease in 2015, and it's common among those who are 65 years old and above. Around 66% of the patients, meanwhile, are women. The disease still doesn't have any cure, which makes it the only top 10 causes of death that cannot be prevented.