Like a lot of people, I imagine, I'm here after receiving a genetic heritage and health testing kit as a gift (and what a gift!

Alzheimer's had never affected me simply because it had never happened to anyone I know. I'm 38 and until now had felt quite youthful, but now all of a sudden I feel old and have this sense of impending doom whenever I think about the future. I'm Scottish but have lived in Italy for nearly all of my adult life, so one thing I'm feeling fairly positive about, I suppose, is the fact that I have eaten a Mediterranean diet for the last twenty years without even having to think about it. The threads on these forums have filled me with some hope and also some good advice, which I hope to follow carefully as I aim to really take a serious look at my diet and how I can improve. But I am also getting really concerned when reading other stories about people with 4/4 status who are being diagnosed at a very young age, and it makes me wonder if this is all really worth it, or if lifestyle changes can really do as much as we hope? I am divorced, live alone and don't have children or indeed any family here, so I am having all these bleak, panicked thoughts about facing an early decline with nobody to look out for me
