Two Parents With Alzheimer's Raises Child's Risk
Any additional family history boosts odds of getting the disease earlier, study finds
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_62040.html (*this news item will not be available after 06/08/2008)
HealthDayMonday, March 10, 2008 Overall, 42 percent of offspring whose parents both had Alzheimer's
went on to develop the disease themselves by age 70, the researchers
found. The risk is also greater of developing the disease early if additional relatives had Alzheimer's disease, researchers say. Most experts agree that genetics plays a role in Alzheimer's
disease, but the degree to which genetics is responsible for the
disease is still unclear. Bird's group is trying to determine the genetic factors at play in
Alzheimer's disease. So far, only one genetic factor has been
documented, Bird said. "The hope is, there will be others and they will
be found," he said. "Presumably, these children would have a higher
concentration of those factors. So, that's what ought to be looked
for." The report appears in the March issue of the Archives of Neurology. In the study, Bird's team collected data on the grown children in 111 families where both parents had Alzheimer's disease.
MONDAY,
March 10 (HealthDay News) -- If both parents have Alzheimer's disease,
their children face an increased risk of developing the condition, a
new study suggests.
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