Alzheimer’s ‘Markers’ Don’t Doom You to Dementia

“It could be many years, and it could be longer than your natural life expectancy,” Brookmeyer added.

For example, high levels of abnormal amyloid proteins in your brain or shrinkage of your brain each confer only a minimal risk of future dementia, a new statistical risk model indicates.

Further, a person’s dementia risk is even lower if the amyloid or shrinkage is detected at a more advanced age, the study authors noted.

On the other hand, a person’s risk does rise if early biological signs of Alzheimer’s start stacking up, the investigators found.

Shrinking of specific brain regions confer similarly low lifetime dementia risks at age 60; about 23 percent for men and 30 percent for women.

But if men or women have both high amyloid levels and brain shrinkage at age 60, their dementia risk increases to 34 percent and 42 percent, respectively, according to the report.

People face the most risk if they have high amyloid levels, brain shrinkage and early signs of mild cognitive impairment, the researchers explained. This impairment usually crops up as memory loss…. more here: https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20180529/alzheimers-markers-dont-doom-you-to-dementia?src=RSS_PUBLIC#1