Risk Factors

Alzheimer's disease begins altering the brain long before it affects memory and thinking.

So scientists are developing a range of tests to detect these changes in the brain, which include an increase in toxic proteins, inflammation and damage to the connections between brain cells.

In order to get ahead of Alzheimer’s disease earlier, more and more research studies are seeking people without changes to their memory and thinking along with those with a condition known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The question is, how do you know if you have it?

Imagine being told you are living with Alzheimer’s disease only to discover you have been misdiagnosed and are suffering from another neurodegenerative condition. At 52 years old, Mike Belleville was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Several years later, he was reevaluated and learned he has Lewy body dementia (LBD), a disease many researchers believe is the second most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 1.3 million Americans. Belleville is among a number of people who have experienced the pain of misdiagnosis and are living with what the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA) calls “the most misdiagnosed form of dementia.”

“I tell people to go to the gym three to four times a week if they want to prevent Alzheimer’s.” And that along with a healthy diet may well be all we have for now in the wake of so many failed attempts at treating or curing the disease. Still, scientists like Dr. R. Scott Turner, who directs the Memory Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center, are far from giving up the fight.

Encouraging evidence indicates that being more physically active is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and a slower rate of cognitive decline in older adults. But it remains unclear exactly how physical activity lowers this risk for Alzheimer’s disease.