NF52 wrote: People with ApoE 3/3 can and do still get Alzheimer's. I was at a meeting of scientists rating applications for funding for Alzheimer's research in December and they said: The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer's overall is advanced old age. Currently about 1/3 of people over the age of 85 would be likely to get a diagnosis of either Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a summary of the 2018 international Alzheimer's Association conference. That's actually an improvement over previous decades, when about 50% of people over 85 had AD. If your mother and her parents and brothers developed dementia in their late 70's or 80's, it's possible that it was from a combination of risk factors (including pollution and dietary habits that you don't have).
It's also the case that "Alzheimer's" has become something of a catch-all diagnosis. My own mother was given that diagnosis shortly before she died, after years of slowly worsening memory issues, and a much earlier MRI that showed white matter disease. It's likely that she actually had primarily vascular dementia from years of uncontrolled high blood pressure with some AD pathology in addition. Her own mother died of a stroke at age 45, another indication of vascular issues.
Thanks for the confirmation that people with E3/E3 can still have Alzheimer's. When I first got my mother's results, I thought it wasn't possible, and I got 23andMe to re-run her sample. They didn't want to do it, but I persisted and they finally did it for me. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have bothered them!
My mother's neurologist says that based on her brain scans, symptoms, test results, and the disease progression, she thinks it is Alzheimer's rather than vascular disease, but I guess it could be a combination of both.
My mother wasn't diagnosed until the age of 73, but we're pretty sure she had it since the age of about 65 and she hid it. She lived alone, and was able to hide it until it was very noticeable. My brother and I thought she was just getting older, and of course in hindsight, we should have known something was up.
Thanks again and I wish you continued good health!
