Is it possible that #spit is all we needed to detect #AlzheimersDisease? - http://clapway.com/2015/07/20/could-alzheimers-show-up-in-saliva-222/

Great news for people with Alzheimer’s disease was brought by way of a new study showing that a person’s saliva may be able to tell if the person is at risk of getting this disease.

Alzheimer’s is Difficult to Detect

Diagnosing a person with Alzheimer’s is far from being easy. First of all, a medical history is necessary, followed by both physical as well as neurological exams. Furthermore, brain imaging and blood tests must be done in order to complete the results and be able to detect if the disease is present.

Specialists are trying to find better ways to identify Alzheimer’s before it is too late for the patient. But the biggest problem is that this disease is difficult to recognize, even when fully developed.

Saliva – a Tool to Recognize Alzheimer’s

On Sunday, during the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Washington, D.C a new study was presented. In accordance with the researchers responsible for this study, saliva may be used as a diagnostic tool in order to discover early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta tested samples from 22 Alzheimer’s disease patients, 25 people with cognitive impairment and 35 people with normal mental capacities.

According to the results of this recent study, it seems that Alzheimer’s patients had an impressive amount of metabolites in their saliva, compared to the rest of people. This substance may help doctors find out if a person has Alzheimer’s, without waiting for the memory loss symptoms to appear.

An Important Step Towards Detecting Alzheimer’s

The lead author of the study Shraddha Sapkota considers that using saliva to detect Alzheimer’s in a person is an amazing discovery that offers a simple, as well as non-invasive manner that can confirm the diagnosis. However, the research is at an early stage and it has not been probed in by other studies, yet.

According to the authors of this study, the next step is to validate the results with larger studies that will allow them to find out if similar results exist, and if the same metabolites or biomarkers will be identified in a higher number of people. So, there are some gaps in the evidence, but this is still an important step towards the ability to detect Alzheimer’s early.

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Could Alzheimer"s Show Up in Saliva?

Does Alzheimer"s Disease Affect Races Differently? - http://clapway.com/2015/07/16/does-alzheimers-disease-affect-races-differently567/

Alzheimer’s disease is an extremely discussed condition, one that can cause people to suffer from a diversity of problems. These severe symptoms include mood swings, language problems, and, of course memory loss.

Dementia Isn’t a Specific Disease

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is not actually a disease, despite what many people believe.

In fact, dementia refers to a large number of symptoms, like communication problems or other issues big enough to interfere with and interrupt normal daily life.

alzheimer’s disease affects African-Americans differently than European-Americans

In accordance with a new research from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Alzheimer’s disease affects people differently, depending on their race.

For this study, researchers investigated the brain autopsy of 122 individuals, 41 being African Americans while 81 European-Americans.

The results revealed that almost all patients showed signs of Alzheimer’s disease. What was curious was that not more than 19.5 percent of the African-Americans investigated had Alzheimer’s disease as single dementia pathology. The same result was found for 42 percent of the studied European Americans.

Another result of this research showed that in 51 percent of the European-American brains was found another type of brain pathology mixed with Alzheimer’s, compared to the 71 percent of African-Americans.

In addition to these answers, it seems that a high risk of severe blood vessel disease was found in the studied African-Americans’ brains.

The Study Could Strongly Influence How Alzheimer’s Disease is Treated

According to this research, the risk of suffering from different types of brain changes is higher for African-Americans.

And this result can have important implications when it comes to how Alzheimer’s disease is treated. Current Alzheimer’s drugs target specific Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, but since the disease has different effects, depending on race, a new treatment will probably be needed to also target other types of common pathologies.

Alzheimer’s is a dangerous disease and this is the reason why it is extremely important to raise awareness about it in both European-American, as well as African-American communities. People should be aware of the implications of this disease, and everybody should report when experiencing any of the symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

The results, found by the Rush University Medical Center study are published in the journal Neurology.

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Does Alzheimer"s Disease Affect Races Differently?