Alzheimer’s gives signs 20 years before symptoms

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

Researchers said yesterday they had seen the earliest-ever warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease among a high-risk group of 20-somethings in the ongoing quest for early detection and prevention.

A major problem in the search for a cure for this debilitating form of dementia is that symptoms appear years after irreversible brain decay has already set in.

The findings “suggest that neurodegenerative changes occur more than 20 years before symptom onset and somewhat earlier than was suggested by findings from previous MRI studies,” Nick Fox of the University College London’s Dementia Research Center said in a comment on the study. The Alzheimer’s rate is increasing as the world’s population ages.