Your Genes Can Increase Your Risk For Dementia
Having a family memberespeciallya first-degree relative like your mother, father, sister, or brotherwithsevere memory problems, Alzheimers disease, or another form of dementia makesyou 3.5 times more likely to develop symptoms. Similarly, if you have one ortwo copies of the APOE4 gene, you have a greater chance of memory problems.
Many people in the medical community contend that there is nothing anyone can do to mitigate genetic risk. Theyre wrong. There are many things you can do to reduce your risk even if you have a genetic predisposition for the disease. Just look at Bud.
Is Alzheimer’s Disease Inherited
Alzheimer’s diseasediseasehereditaryAlzheimer’sdisease
. Considering this, is Alzheimer’s inherited from mother or father?
En español | If your mother has Alzheimer’s, you are more likely to develop the disease than if your father has Alzheimer’s, according to a study published today in the journal Neurology. The study adds to a growing body of evidence that a tendency for the disease appears to be passed down through the mother’s genes.
Secondly, how does Alzheimer’s run in families? Those who have a parent, brother or sister with Alzheimer’s are more likely to develop the disease. The risk increases if more than one family member has the illness. When diseases tend to run in families, either heredity , environmental factors, or both, may play a role.
Then, is Alzheimer’s hereditary yes or no?
Alzheimer’s disease is not usually hereditary. It is therefore not generally caused by the genes received from a person’s parents. However, as the disease is so common amongst older people, it is not unusual for two or more family members over the age of 65 to have it.
What are the chances of getting Alzheimer’s if a parent has it?
Familial Alzheimer’s diseaseIn this form of the illness, there is a 50 per cent chance of developing the disease if you have a parent with the illness who has a confirmed genetic mutation.
What Are The 5 Worst Foods For Memory
The Worst Foods for Your Brain
- 5 / 12. Diet Sodas and Drinks With Artificial Sweeteners.
- 6 / 12. French Fries and Other Fried Foods.
- 7 / 12. Doughnuts.
- 8 / 12. White Bread and White Rice.
- 9 / 12. Red Meat.
- 10 / 12. Butter and Full-Fat Cheese.
- 11 / 12. Swordfish and Ahi Tuna.
- 12 / 12. Bottled Dressings, Marinades, and Syrups.
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How Easily You Gain Weight
However, while mom may be helping you out with the brown fat, you can blame your dad for your white fat, the Nature Communications study found. How much fat you store, particularly around your organs may be partly determined by genes passed down from your father, the researchers said. Genetics arent destiny when it comes to your weight, your lifestyle choices play an even bigger part.
Are you always hungry? Here are the reasons you cant stop eating.
How Can Genes Cause Dementia
Most often, dementia is caused by a complex disease in which genes are only one factor. When this happens, the dementia develops as a result of many different factors. In these cases, genes do not directly cause it to develop.
It is not possible to directly inherit dementia when it is caused by a complex disease.
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What Kind Of Dementia Is Hereditary
Dr. Rx
Just because your family member had dementia does not mean you will also get it. Although you are at higher risk, there are also a number of things you can do to lower your risk. Dont smoke, get regular exercise, eat healthfully, manage health issues , maintain regular social connection, and do activities that challenge your brain . Dr. Wegner
Researchers have identified several genes that increase the riskof Alzheimers, such as the APOE-e4 gene. An estimated 40% to 65% of those diagnosed with Alzheimers have this gene.
Vascular dementia is less likely to be influenced by genes. It is more likely linked to risk factors for heart disease like high blood pressure, being overweight, having a sedentary lifestyle, or diabetes.
About one in three of frontotemporal disorders may be hereditary.
Alzheimer’s Disease Inherited Through Maternal Line Study Finds
- Date:
- Elsevier
- Summary:
- A family history of Alzheimer’s disease significantly increases the risk for developing this disorder, but a new study suggests that which of your parents has the disease is very important.
A family history of Alzheimer’s disease significantly increases the risk for developing this disorder, but a new study in Biological Psychiatry suggests that which of your parents has the disease is very important.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia in late-life, affecting over 5 million elderly in the United States alone. In order to develop preventative treatments, it is necessary to identify those individuals who are at highest risk for developing Alzheimer’s.
Although individuals with a parental history of Alzheimer’s are at increased risk for developing the disease, the specific biological and genetic mechanisms accounting for this increased risk are not known.
An important consideration may be a phenomenon called genomic imprinting, where the pattern of the inherited disease differs based on whether the risk genes are inherited from the mother or the father. Imprinting is a type of epigenetic regulation, meaning that long lasting changes in gene function are produced through regulatory mechanisms rather than by altering the sequence of the DNA.
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Family History By The Numbers
Studies of family history say that if you have a close relative who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers diseasethe most common form of dementia in older adultsyour risk increases by about 30%. This is a relative risk increase, meaning a 30% hike in your existing risk.
If you are age 65, the risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimers is 2% per year, although this also means a 98% chance per year of not developing Alzheimers. In absolute numbers, a 2% annual risk means that two out of 100 65-year-olds will develop dementia every year.
Family history raises the 2% annual risk by about 30%, to 2.6% per year. That means going from 20 cases in a group of 1,000 to 26 in 1,000, or six additional cases in 1,000. So the absolute increase is relatively small, Dr. Marshall says.
Age raises the chance of Alzheimers more than family history. People in their 70s have a 5% chance of being diagnosedmore than twice that of people in their 60s. Family history raises this by 30%, from 5% to 6.5%. Again, the absolute change is relatively small.
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Am I At Risk For Alzheimers
Whether we have seen early signs in ourselves or not, many of us want to know what our chances of getting this disease may be. Research has shown a number of possible factors that can impact your chances of getting Alzheimers disease, although none of these are a cause in and of themselves.
Some ages are more at risk
Old age is one of the most obvious risk factors. The vast majority of people develop the disease after the age of 65, and once you reach 65, your risk of getting Alzheimers doubles every five years. But Alzheimers doesnt only affect people over 65 it has been known to affect people half that age, although this is much rarer.
Alzheimers is hereditary
A family history will also increase your risk of getting the disease. The risk increases even more if you have multiple family members who have suffered from the disease.
Whilst this may be due to the hereditary genetic factors we will look at in more depth later, there may be other factors at play. These could include environmental factors that impact both yourself and your family.
Gender predisposition
Gender is another significant risk factor. The first discovery of the disease back in 1906 was in a woman, and about twice as many women as men over 65 have Alzheimers. This may be in part to the fact that women have a longer lifespan or may even possibly be linked to menopause.
Genetic factors of Alzheimers
Other risk factors
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Genes That May Influence Alzheimers
The above-linked Alzheimers Society article is informed by responses from Professor Nick Fox, Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the Institute of Neurology in London. The article tells us:
- 99% of Alzheimers cases are not hereditary. And since the most significant risk factor is age, its not uncommon to have a parent or grandparent with Alzheimers disease who is in their late 70s and 80s. In that same 99% of Alzheimers cases, your risk of inheriting of Alzheimers compared to the rest of the population is very slight.
- In less than 1% of all Alzheimers cases, there is a very rare type that is hereditary. Early-onset Familial Alzheimers Disease, , described here and here, affects between 2-3% of the population. If a physician diagnoses you with eFAD, one of your parents will have had the disease if they lived long enough. In addition, your siblings and children may have a 50-50 chance of inheriting eFAD. Note that early-onset Alzheimers usually occurs in individuals who are in their 30s, 40s or 50s. In rare cases, it occurs when a person is in their 20s.
- Researchers have discovered that certain genes will cause early-onset Familial Alzheimers Disease if they have a specific kind of mutation or change. Known as PS1, PS2 and APP, the full names of these genes are: Amyloid precursor protein gene APP on chromosome 21 Presenilin 1 on chromosome 14 and presenilin 2 on chromosome 1.
Can Genes Cause Dementia
Around 1 in 4 people aged 55 years and over has a close birth relative with dementia. Find out what part genes play in dementia and how genetics can affect the risk of developing the condition.
It is well known that children can take after their parents for example, in the way they look. This is partly because many of the key characteristics of a person are passed down from parents to children in their genes.
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Can You Be Tested To See If You Carry A Gene That Causes Alzheimers Disease
This is another very common question. It is possible to detect whether people are carrying a mutation in one of the autosomal dominantly inherited genes, APP, PSEN-1 or PSEN-2, through a blood test. As explained above, it is extremely rare to carry one of these mutations, but if you do carry one, then you will almost certainly develop Alzheimers disease at a young age, and there is a 50% chance that you will pass on the faulty gene to any children you have. If someone shows symptoms at a young age, and there is a strong family history of young-onset Alzheimers disease or someone else in the family is known to carry a faulty gene, then this person can have symptomatic genetic testing to confirm the presence of the gene. If someone doesnt have symptoms but it is known that one of their parents carried a faulty gene, this person could opt to go through genetic counselling and after that they may decide to have presymptomatic testing to see whether or not they carry the gene . This is a very tricky decision: some people prefer not to find out and to live with the hope that they dont have the gene others feel that they are better able to plan for the future if they know.
What is your interpretation of the genetics of Alzheimers disease, and the risk of developing it? Risk is something that people interpret in different ways, are the kinds of differences in risk described in this article meaningful to you?
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What Factors Might Affect Dementia Risk
Genes which are not considered modifiable and lifestyle factors like physical activity and diet which are considered modifiable play potential roles in different forms of dementia.
A recent study in JAMA attempts to estimate how much genetic and lifestyle factors influence risk for dementia by querying individuals who pledged to be part of a UK-based biobank. Biobanks link large collections of biological information, such as genetics, with health and disease status gleaned from medical records. Using data in large biobanks, scientists can look at how the environment which includes lifestyle choices and genetics work together to increase risk for disease.
In the JAMA study, researchers tapped hospital records and death registries to collect diagnoses in 200,000 white British individuals age 60 or older.
Mothers Fathers And Alzheimers Disease
Having a parent with Alzheimers disease increases your risk of developing the disease yourself. But people whose mothers had Alzheimers are more likely to get the disease than those whose fathers had it.
Those are the results of a new study that looked at the brains of healthy people, some of whose parents had Alzheimers. The findings are consistent with earlier research showing that the chances of inheriting the disease from your mother are greater than from your father.
It is estimated that people who have first-degree relatives with Alzheimers disease are four to 10 times more likely to develop the disease themselves compared to people with no family history, said study author Robyn Honea of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City. The findings were published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For the study, researchers enlisted the help of 53 mentally alert men and women over age 60. Eleven had a mother with Alzheimers, 10 had a father with the disease, and the remainder said they had no family history of the illness.
Each study volunteer underwent a brain M.R.I. scan at the start of the study, then another scan two years later. Although all remained free of serious memory loss and other symptoms of Alzheimers, those whose mother had Alzheimers had more brain changes typical of Alzheimers disease.
The authors call for more research into the inherited aspects of Alzheimers disease.
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Genes And Dementia With Lewy Bodies
Dementia with Lewy bodies is caused by a build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain and may have symptoms similar to those seen in Parkinsons disease. Age is currently the biggest known risk factor for dementia with Lewy bodies, although research is underway to find out whether genes may also play a role.
Is Dementia Passed On Through Our Dna
Medical research seems to suggest that it is very unlikely that dementia can be passed on through our DNA. But in rare cases, some diseases that lead to dementia can be passed on through our DNA. But it is still extremly rare that if a family member such as a parent or grandparent has developed one of the many different kinds of dementia, that their children will inherit the disease at some stage in their life.
This is not to say that somebody with Alzheimers cannot have not passed on the disease from parent to child. It is possible they could have. In some rare cases of Alzheimers, the disease can be inherited from a parent. But this is very rare.There is a group of four genes a person can carry that can lead to a greater risk of Alzheimers. With 3 of the four genes being responsible for early onset dementia in people in their 30s, 40s and 50s with the other gene being responsible for Alzheimers in older people, usually over 65 years of age.
In the majority of cases of Alzheimers the disease is mostly associated with old age. Most cases are diagnosed with people in their 70s and 80s which is often referred to as Senile dementia.
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Vascular Issues May Also Play A Role In Alzheimers Disease
Vascular problems those related to blood vessels, such as beta-amyloid deposits in brain arteries, ministrokes, and hardening of the arteries may be a cause of Alzheimers disease as well as a result of it.
Damaged arteries harm the brain by reducing the flow of blood, depriving brain cells of oxygen and essential nutrients like glucose preventing the elimination of toxic beta-amyloid and tau proteins and leading to damaging inflammation.
Researchers are working to identify exactly how and why this happens with the goal of interfering with this cycle.
A study published in 2017 in the Journal of the American Medical Association , following 322 subjects for over 20 years, found a relationship between vascular risk factors in middle age obesity, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol and amyloid plaques in the brain.
The researchers found that subjects who had one risk factor had an 88 percent increased risk for elevated levels of amyloid plaques. People with two or more risk factors had almost triple the risk.