AD Onset: the importance of family history (or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love age 89)

[GemmaJ]

I wrote that message for you, and people in your position.

Thanks Searcher

[NF52]

I've spent a sleepless night over this article, worrying that both my Mum and Grandmother were showing signs of AD at 65 and slid quite rapdily into it (Mum is now 70 and in the advanced stages).

Hi Gemma,
I hope life in Spain with your 2 kids and teaching English is still wonderful. Like Searcher, I usually go hunting for research studies when I have an ApoE 4 question, but today I'm going to offer some old-fashioned anecdotal evidence, and a touch of logic.
First the logic: You have "evidence" from your mum and grandmother of dementia in their 60's. Although you're referring to it as AD, is it possible that in one or both cases is was more like vascular dementia, with a history on uncontrolled high blood pressure, or coronary artery disease? While your mother is a first-degree relative, you also have only 50% of her DNA. If you start looking back just a couple of generations, you could have lots of specific protective genes from any one of your 8 great-grandparents.

Now the anecdotes:
My father had quadruple bypass surgery at 67 and died of cardiac arrest 8 months later. Approaching that age, with people saying I'm like him in many (good) ways and with super-high Lp(a) and LDL-P scores, I decided to get a coronary calcium scan. Even my doctor assumed the "best news" would be that my heart age was my chronological age of 65. Instead, it came back with zero calcium and a "cardiac age of 39." So maybe I got heart-healthy genes from my dad's mother, who lived to 93 with no heart problems?
One more anecdote:
Decades ago I taught with a great guy, who was 32 and deeply worried. He was half the age of his father, who had just been unable to identify his own daughter when she came to the door. "Bob" told me that every male in his father's family had "senility" by the age of 64. I lost track of "Bob", whose mother and my mother were friends, so recently looked him up online. He's 72, playing trumpet in a community band (a new skill, to my knowledge), volunteering in several organizations and enjoying life. "Bob" is evidence that our parent's and grandparent's destiny is not pre-ordained for us.
Best wishes for comfort as you support your mother in her own journey. I never felt closer to my mother than when I was helping to ease her confusion and keep joy in her life.

[GemmaJ]

Hi NF52!

I'm touched you remember me! Thank you for all the reassurance - the anecdotes certainly helped. That's great news about your heart scan! I'm so pleased it's all going well for you.

My Mum has been diagnosed with advanced stage AD, as was my Grandma in the 1990s but my story is different from theirs - my Mum has lived the last 25 years in a highly stressful state and I'm sure that is what drove her into dementia so early. We're moving home later this year to be closer to her and family so your final words seem timely.

All of you have helped me so much - I continue optimistic, boosted by science and the grounded wisdom I have found in this community - thank you!

[Orangeblossom]

Yes, from my family experience a stressful life certainly linked into earlier symptoms- with my Granny it was the wartime, she thought we were evacuees and lived back in the wartime through her dementia. I have since learnt people with PTSD from wartime have an increased risk of dementia and earlier onset of symptoms.

Genes load the bullet, lifestyle can pull the trigger...I do believe that..