Alzheimer's can appear in 20-year-olds.
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Alzheimer's has always been seen as a disease that affects older people, but now a study reveals that it can also occur in patients under 60 years of age, even in 20-year-olds.
In a visit to Maracaibo, Joseph Lee, a genetic epidemiologist at Columbia University in New York, explains the details of the research and points out that they are now analyzing the causes of this early onset.
"We conducted a study in people with Alzheimer's in early onset, which has a high probability of having a genetic or hereditary origin. These patients represent 5% of all cases and suffer from the disease from 20 years or before 60, "says the specialist.
"With these families, in which we have achieved many people with Alzheimer's in early onset, we look for new genes associated with the disease. Once we get them, we'll test if they have any kind of influence on late-onset Alzheimer's patients, which are 95% of the cases, "says Lee, who focuses his research on the genetics of the disease.
"We have achieved that people who have certain mutations, even within their family, there is a great variation in the appearance of symptoms and disease. We are interested in finding out what are the reasons that make a person who already has a mutation, which is known to produce this disease, have such a large variation in the phenotype, that is, in some appear earlier and in others later "Says the researcher.
Many studies have shown that the best prevention is to keep the brain busy, reading, making memory games and physical exercises, recommends Lee.