Doctors know one thing about a cure for Alzheimer's - they need to be able to catch it early if they are ever to have any hope of doing something about it. And there are encouraging news reports in this area now. People who have Alzheimer's all have a certain level of abnormal proteins in their systems. They have found remarkably accurate tests that are able to identify how much of these proteins a person has. When your doctor orders a test for these proteins, he can tell if they are too high, and if you are at risk of Alzheimer's.
Certainly there have been tests to do with these Alzheimer's proteins before; what's a bit surprising about the new test is that it is completely accurate. Always. After years gone by with nothing much by way of an advancement in a cure for Alzheimer's in the news, they have finally announced a big step in the form of a possible diagnostic test for this progressive brain disease. When you consider that the only way before that they could really test for these proteins before was a proper brain dissection after death, this news is pretty remarkable.
People with Alzheimer's find that the disease progresses slowly over a period of 10 years from the point it actually starts. Five years after it starts, when the effects begin to really show, it becomes too late for the doctors to actually try saving anything. Now that they have a way to screen people for Alzheimer's susceptibility, researchers are going to bring in people to test them for the drugs they have in development, to see how well they can arrest or completely stop the progression of the disease.
This particular test draws spinal fluid to check for protein levels. But there are more simple tests in the offing too - ones that involve PET scans of the brain to look for the areas of strange plaque formation that people with Alzheimer's get. There are at least a thousand new drugs in development now that can help with these plaque patches. The drugs will aim to stop the brain cell death that causes all the memory loss and the regression.
Right now, the scan method is not readily available at your doctor's office; but the spinal fluid method that is completely accurate is. The problem now though is, that of all of the thousand drugs in development, none is actually available. While doctors may be able to point with complete accuracy to the patient who comes in, what his chances of developing Alzheimer's are, they really can't do anything about it just yet. If there is no cure for Alzheimer's available at the moment, should you really go in for a spinal tap that is painful and gives you headaches? That would be entirely be a personal decision.
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