A recent study from Duarte, Calif.-based City of Hope National Medical Center's Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) found that individuals with a family history of Alzheimer's disease may begin displaying memory issues as early as in their 20s.
In the study, published June 18 in eLife, scientists from TGen and the University of Arizona in Tucson analyzed the data of nearly 60,000 people aged 18 to 65 who completed an online word-pairing memory test called MindCrowd. On average, participants with a family history of Alzheimer's did not perform as well on the test as their peers without a genetic predisposition to the disease.
The effects of family history were present in every age group studied, according to the study's authors, proving that Alzheimer's could potentially be detected up to four decades before the typical onset age of 65. Additionally, the genetic effects were particularly pronounced among participants who were male, less educated or diabetic.
"This study supports recommendations underscoring the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and properly treating disease states such as diabetes," said lead author Joshua S. Talboom, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in TGen's neurogenomics division. "Our findings specifically highlight the positive effects of such interventions for those with a family history risk of Alzheimer's, opening the door to the development of more targeted risk-reduction approaches to combat the disease."
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