Factors which affect when first symptoms of Alzeihmeirs show

Washington D.C.: While it is known that the occurrence of dementia is influenced by a person’s family history and conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes; a little is known what affects the appearance of first symptoms of forgetfulness.
However, researchers in a new study have revealed that people with dementia – whose parents also had dementia – develop symptoms six years earlier than their parents, on average.
The study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published in the journal JAMA Network Open states that factors such as education, blood pressure and carrying the variant APOE4, which increases the risk of dementia, accounted for less than a third of the variation in the age at onset.
“It’s important to know who is going to get dementia, but it’s also important to know when symptoms will develop,” said first author Gregory Day, MD, an assistant professor of neurology and an investigator at the Charles F. Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC).
Researchers studied people with dementia who were participating in research studies at the Knight ADRC. They identified 164 people with dementia who had at least one parent who had been diagnosed with dementia.
Using medical records and interviews with participants and knowledgeable friends or family members, researchers determined the age at onset of dementia for each participant and their parent(s).