Article on extended family raising risk

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mike
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Article on extended family raising risk

Post by mike »

Here is an article that looked beyond immediate family to see if risk changed - and it does.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/ ... ate_Active
Alzheimer's disease risk rose when individuals had first-, second-, or third-degree relatives with the disease, an analysis of genealogy and death certificates in Utah found.

The risk doubled if a person had both a first-degree relative (parent or sibling) and a second-degree relative (grandparent, aunt, uncle, or a sibling who shared one parent) who had the disease, according to Lisa Cannon-Albright, PhD, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues.
This goes against other research I've seen:
The results suggested that given an equivalent family history, men were at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease than women. Evidence was mixed about differences on maternal versus paternal inheritance.
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

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At first glance it looks like a gigantic study, but the population shrinks awfully quickly:
The analysis included 270,818 people with genealogy data for at least 12 immediate ancestors and a linked Utah death certificate; more than half of these individuals died after 1978. Of those people, 4,436 had a Utah death certificate that indicated Alzheimer's disease as a primary or contributing cause of death, with most of those deaths (3,298) occurring after 2000.
Speaking as a guy whose father and paternal grandfather died of Alzheimer’s and dementia, I’m hoping this genealogy correlation is not causation. It’d be very interesting to learn whether the higher-risk families had lifestyles (smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise) which exacerbated any genetics.
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Fiver
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

Post by Fiver »

Great.

Not too surprising. But since I don't live in Utah I suppose I can choose to believe this doesn't apply in my case ;)
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

Post by cwicker »

Depressing study for me. Just lost my mom to Alzheimer's last week. Father has Alzheimer's, as did my grandmother and my only uncle and aunt. Looking for some hope in all this.
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

Post by NF52 »

cwicker wrote:Depressing study for me. Just lost my mom to Alzheimer's last week. Father has Alzheimer's, as did my grandmother and my only uncle and aunt. Looking for some hope in all this.
I'm so sorry for your loss of my mother--first to AD and then to death, cwicker.

Here's some hope for you, from the authors of the study:
Arguably, those with a family history of AD among FDRs may already be engaged in lifestyle changes to reduce their personal risk by reducing or managing conditions with known associations with AD such as cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and others. Collectively, the effect of reducing modifiable risk factors on AD risk is estimated at 33%,39,40 and promising results of lifestyle changes on cognitive decline in older adults have been reported from the multidomain lifestyle intervention study (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability [FINGER]).
The study did not have ApoE 4 as a variable to look at risk. Mormon families in Utah typically are large, which allowed the study authors to look for people with records on 12 out of at least 14 relatives' death certificates (!) So it's possible that what is being found is the effect of large families of the WWII generation, all of whom shared lifestyle risk factors (not smoking or drinking among Mormons!) as well as genetic risk factors.

My mother was the youngest of 5 sisters who developed dementia in their 70's to late 80's. All had high blood pressure; most had actual cardiac disease. Only my mother had an education past 8th grade. Many had diets high in carbohydrates, even without being overweight. Yet I still only have 50% of my genes from her and have normal blood pressure and zero coronary plaque. None of my 20 female cousins, many of them into their early 70's, has any sign of heart disease or MCI. So lifestyle and cognitive reserve makes those Utah ancestry records interesting, but far from a fate sealed at birth.

Here's the link to the whole study. The charts don't look so scary when studied, in my novice view.
https://n.neurology.org/content/neurolo ... 1.full.pdf
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

Post by Fiver »

So sorry to hear this cwicker. I've lost 3 family members to AD, and my mom is in the late stages. It can be hard to stay optimistic. That's what I love about NF52. She's remained optimistic and is a great source of solid information that is encouraging for us.
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Re: Article on extended family raising risk

Post by cwicker »

I appreciate the encouraging words. My parents and grandmother had excellent life-style habits. Mom was 84 when she died. Dad is 83 and in long-term care for his dementia. My grandmother also died at 84 for Alzheimer's. Interestingly, I don't have the APOE4 gene though my brother and father both have one copy. Not sure about mom. I will be brave and look at the study.
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