Chapters Transcript Video Can a Blood Test Detect Alzheimer’s Disease? The challenge here is that um Alzheimer's type pathology does not mean that they have Alzheimer's disease, which is a clinical diagnosis. What blood tests do is to look at traces of certain proteins that are known to develop in patients who have Alzheimer's disease. These blood tests should really be reserved on people who are at risk or are having uh early symptoms of memory issues. And the information that is derived from these blood tests should really be put in context with other information like your performance in cognitive tests, neurological exams and other information that are even more important than this blood test. A blood test will not answer that question, only a trained clinician can. So for people who are interested in these kinds of blood tests, um I would suggest that before um ordering these tests, they should first speak with their health professional to see if these tests are right for them. Or perhaps other measures should be done first like um an office based cognitive testing or a neurologic examination or a consultation with a memory specialist because these blood tests do not answer whether you have Alzheimer's disease or not. So age is one of the main risk factor for developing dementia later in life. Other things include a family history, especially having uh dementia diagnosed in uh a first degree relative increases one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease themselves. Um, in later years, people who had traumatic brain injury or have had a stroke or have Parkinson's disease or other neurologic conditions may be at increased risk of developing dementia. What we need to do is to make sure that our brains get uh the blood supply that it needs. And that is uh best assured by uh a healthy lifestyle, good diet, good sleep exercise, increased socialization to make sure those connections between brain cells are nice and healthy. And of course, protecting your brain from trauma like wearing a helmet, wearing a seatbelt when you're driving. These are all important measures. Created by
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