Children’s odds

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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JudithPrietht
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Children’s odds

Post by JudithPrietht »

I am new so please forgive a question that seems uneducated: I am 0/0 and my wife is 4/4. Does that mean our son must be 0/4?
Plumster
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Re: Children’s odds

Post by Plumster »

Hi Judith,

Yes, your son would be 0/4.
e3/4 MTHFR C677T/A1298C COMT V158M++ COMT H62H++ MTRR A66G ++ HLA DR
NF52
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Re: Children’s odds

Post by NF52 »

JudithPrietht wrote:I am new so please forgive a question that seems uneducated: I am 0/0 and my wife is 4/4. Does that mean our son must be 0/4?
Welcome, Judith!
It sounds like you and your wife are in the whirlwind phase of discovery: the time when it seems like you can't get the information you want fast enough, and what you find isn't always clear and consistent. It's more frustrating when you find, as I did, that my doctor (who I trust highly on other things) is sympathetic but admits to not being up on ApoE 4 research and prevention options.

It does get better, speaking as someone who is an ApoE 4/4 wife also--among other roles--and who has found that this is an important, but not all-consuming part of who I am. I do have a question for you, not your wife: you say that you are 0/0; how did you get that info? Almost all reports are that someone is some combination of two alleles of either ApoE 2, 3, or 4, with the most common inheritance of ApoE 3/3. Is there a chance that you got a report that said you have no ApoE 4 alleles, and therefore you took that to mean your a 0/0? If you are, like my husband, ApoE 3/3, then your son would be ApoE 3/4. All three of my adult children are ApoE 3/4 and I am confident that at their age (millenials) they have decades to continue their good health habits, and for the science around prevention to dramatically improve.

For both you and your wife, genes are not destiny: There are thousands of people around the world with ApoE 4/4 who are cognitively healthy in their 60's and 70's who are currently participating in clinical trials of lifestyle interventions and prevention drugs (I'm one of them.) We have healthy members on this site in their late 70's and 80's. The science around early identification for early awareness and treatment of big risk factors like high blood pressure, insulin resistance, sleep disorders, unmanaged depression is becoming more clear. The research is also confirming what many people suspected: that Alzheimer's and other dementias are multi-factorial diseases. Lots of "upstream" genetic, environmental, lifestyle, education and health-related factors can contribute to raising or lowering the risk in an individual. We also know that Alzheimer's and other dementias (vascular, Lewy Body, frontal-temporal, Parkinsonian dementia) happen to people without ApoE 4, with advanced age being a contributing risk. So my ApoE 3/3 husband doesn't get to eat bacon at often as he'd like anymore!

You didn't mention how old your wife is, but at age 66, I feel much more positive than I did 4 years ago when I got this news. I hope that we can offer support, information, resources for finding answers outside of this forum when needed, and most of all--a sense of community that knows what you and your wife may be feeling right now--and in the future.

You may want to check out these options for finding a health care practitioner in the Marin/SF area from our Wiki: Searching for a Healthcare Practitioner and this one:
ApoE4-Aware Healthcare Practitioners

And this wiki entry is an easy-to-follow guide to how to quote users so they see your reply, how to search by topic, how to "follow" topics you're most interested in.How to get the most out of the ApoE4.info website. All the things our users told us were most frustrating to figure out!
4/4 and still an optimist!
JudithPrietht
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Re: Children’s odds

Post by JudithPrietht »

NF52:
Thanks for your thoughtful welcome and reply. My wife and I received our report from 23andMe yesterday, and mine reported that “you do not have the e4 variant we tested”. Hers said “you have two copies of the e4 variant we tested.” Mine specifically said that they did not test for the other variants; so I can not know whether I have e1, E2, or e3; right?

We are both 68, and there is AD in both our families (her mother and mine). We agree that genes are not destiny. We are determined to work with the Bredesen Protocol to reverse her already-evident MCI. I’m just starting to explore this website and looking forward to that.
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