Would You Find Out?

With the advances of technology and medicine doctors are now able to predict if you will have Alzheimer’s in the next 10 years with 86% accuracy. Do you know where you’ll be in 10 years? Will you have a family, have your dream career, have grand kids, retire, travel, who the heck knows. No one, it’s in the future, that no one can predict, or can they? Better yet, the question to ask is do you want to find out, good or bad.

The test, is to see if the patient is carrying the strand of DNA that carries the disease in your blood, but not your state of mind and how it will become effective. “Scientists say they are on the cusp of developing blood tests that could detect the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s damage in people in their 40s and 50s who have no obvious symptoms” wrote New York Times journalist Pagan Kennedy. There are no drugs to prevent Alzheimer’s, traditional preventive methods like diet and exercise have proven ineffective against the mind crippling disease of Alzheimer’s. Up until a few years ago, no way to tell until it was too late.

“Researchers found that participants with a small number of molecules found in the blood and brain called microRNAs can correctly detect Alzheimer’s with 86% accuracy” wrote Alzheimer on their bog specifically about informing the public about the advancements and about Alzheimer’s. With a simple blood test you could find out if you have the predisposed gene that will progress into Alzheimer’s in 10 years time.   

“More research is needed before a blood test can be definitively used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, but it is something researchers are working towards. They hope to not only develop a test to detect the presence of Alzheimer’s but also to find early signs of the disease, before symptoms appear, optimizing treatment options for the individual” wrote Alzheimer. The blood test will only tell you what could happen in your future, it’s not a definite answer to your future. “Why do it, he asked me, when there is no drug or lifestyle strategy that is absolutely guaranteed to protect the brain? It would be far more useful if researchers could watch the disease as it spreads through the brain and wreaks its damage” David Holtzman, a neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said in an interview with Kennedy.

Would you want to spend the next few years of your life wondering about the what if’s, or live everyday like your last, and enjoy life and whatever comes of it? Alzheimer’s is looking more and more like a disease that could potentially be preventable in the near future. Researchers are beginning to see links between the disease and multiple preventable scenarios, like a poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Wouldn’t you want to live a naive lifestyle until there was some certainty surrounding this disease. It would be better to live your life to the fullest before you find out that you have a life altering disease that not only affects you but your entire family and support system. So the question becomes will you find out?

Make the most of each and everyday because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the next day, no one can predict your future. You need to plan just the right amount into the future but then let life take the reins a little and enjoy it.   

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/17/opinion/sunday/What-if-You-Knew-Alzheimers-Was-Coming-for-You.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

https://www.alzheimers.net/12-3-14-blood-test-detects-alzheimers-early/     

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