A new and unique study has shown that a blood platelet test can detect early signs of Alzheimer’s in middle age, which will enable early intervention to prevent the brain-dysfunction disease.
According to the medical website, experts from the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas Health San Antonio in the United States and New York University Grossman School of Medicine jointly conducted a unique study.
The study found that vasculature dysfunction, which is caused by abnormal blood clotting, inflammation, diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and aging, is linked to key signs of Alzheimer’s, and this relationship can be seen only in middle age.
The researcher called platelet aggregation (clotting of small blood cells) a key factor in the early detection of Alzheimer’s.
During the study, 382 healthy participants were included, whose average age was 56 years. The researchers measured platelet activity with a light transmission aggregometry (LTA) test, then examined ‘amyloid beta’ and tau proteins in the brain with PET (positron emission tomography) and MRI scans.
The results showed that people whose platelets aggregate more quickly also had higher levels of the Alzheimer ”’s-causing proteins ‘amyloid beta’ and tau in their brains, but the relationship was not the same in everyone.
Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain, and memory is lost. It often affects older people, but people of any age can get this disease. As it has been said that it is incurable, catching it at an early stage helps to prevent it.
Read also: Childhood loneliness increases risk of dementia in old age by 41%, study
Childhood loneliness increases the risk of dementia in old age.
According to a study conducted in this regard, children who have experienced loneliness in childhood have a 40% increased risk of developing dementia in old age.A research team from Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, has published the results of a long-term research study, which examined the relationship between loneliness experienced before the age of 17 and the risk of dementia and mental decline in old age. This research report was published in the international academic journal JAMA Network Open.
The research team explained that while it is well known that loneliness in adults is closely linked to mental decline and an increased risk of dementia, the long-term effects of childhood experiences have not been fully explored and explored.For this study, researchers selected 13,592 people with an average age of 58.3 years and followed them for one year. The researchers included 565 participants in the loneliness group who reported that they often felt lonely before the age of 17 and had no close friends. 6,525 people, who were 48 percent of the total group, were classified as potentially lonely. While the third group included people who had never felt lonely.The results of the study showed that the lonely group had a 41 percent higher risk of dementia in middle or late life than those who had never felt lonely. While mental decline in the lonely and potentially lonely groups increased by 0.02 to 0.03 percent per year, which was significantly higher than in the group that did not feel lonely.
