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ggm an hour ago

Do we yet have any good avoidance or mitigation regimes, be they drug or otherwise for people who show positive on a test like this? The alternative is that it lets you put things in place for when you lose agency.

Good as in scientifically proven. Not speculative fantasy.

simonask 32 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

We don’t currently have any data that shows any clear way to halt or slow Alzheimer’s.

As someone with family affected by this disease, it’s a very personal choice whether you want to know or not, but I wish people understood that there are many things you can do with it, particularly for those who will be there for you if/when it hits.

Taking care of a loved one with this disease is extremely hard, and it’s even harder when they haven’t had any chance to prepare for this eventuality. Stuff like written records of your history (health, life, etc.), clear powers of attorney, and so on.

It also makes things much easier for healthcare professionals.

helsinkiandrew 37 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

The article doesn't explicitly say but presumably you can start taking the anti-amyloid drugs to slow down the progression immediately, there's also lifestyle changes that can be made (most of those would likely benefit most people)

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/combination-he...

> Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease is important since the first treatments capable of slowing the progression of the neurodegenerative disease recently became available to patients, and these drugs are more effective when started sooner rather than later.

rgmerk 20 minutes ago | parent [-]

Not a doctor or medical scientist, but my understanding is a) the effectiveness of those anti-amyloid drugs as a preventative tool is unclear, and b) they have a pretty scary safety profile.

Clearly the goal is to be able to prevent the disease from progressing or slow it significantly, but are we really there yet even if we have a test?