Alzheimer's: In Your Genes?

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- More than five million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer's disease. That's larger than the population of Los Angeles. Half-a-million are under the age of 65. The deadly diagnosis slowly robs people of the ability to think, speak and function. Digging into your family history could help predict the future, but answers aren't easy to find.

There's a killer after Chuck Jackson's family.

"I have one aunt still living and all the rest died with Alzheimer's," Jackson told Ivanhoe.

It claimed his mother, brother, grandfather, a dozen aunts and uncles and a growing list of cousins.

"It just gave me this horrible sense of what was really happening with our family," Jackson described.

At 50, he became the fifth generation of Jacksons to bear the burden of the Alzheimer's disease.

"Sometimes I think I'd just want to be put to sleep and other times I don't," Jackson said.

He uses his good moments to do what few of his relatives ever dared -- speak out against the stigma. He travels to Washington to lobby for more money, more research and more attention.

"Trying to help other people rather than hiding in the house saying it's not happening," he said.

Jackson's family passed down a rare genetic mutation that damages a critical protein in the brain, causing early on-set Alzheimer's. It strikes people as young as 30.

"If you have a mutation in that amyloid gene you will get Alzheimer's disease with 100 percent certainty and half your children will and half your grandchildren and great grandchildren forever more," Joseph Rogers, Ph.D., president of Sun Health Research Institute in Sun City, Ariz., explained to Ivanhoe.

About 90 percent of Alzheimer's cases are considered late-onset. There is a genetic test to find out if a person is at risk for this type, but the results aren't as clear. The blood test looks for a gene called apoe e4. Having it puts you at a greater risk of getting Alzheimer's, but it's not definite that you will get it.

"People should be very careful when they consider genetic testing," Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., director of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago, Ill., told Ivanhoe.

A genetic test for Alzheimer's costs anywhere from 400 to several thousand dollars. Before going through with it experts urge people to talk to a genetic counselor about the emotional and mental toll. Understand there's not much you can do after learning you have the gene and the results could become part of your medical record. In a study of more than 100 families where both parents had Alzheimer's disease, 42 percent of their children developed the disease as well.

Doctor Tom Graboys's parents died from Alzheimer's. The Harvard professor and renowned cardiologist still thought it couldn't happen to him.

"I was arguably at the top of my game," Dr. Graboys told Ivanhoe.

He denied his own dementia and Parkinson's diagnosis until practicing medicine became impossible. The doctor was forced to become a patient.

"Sometimes I just want to shake my head and clear it all up, but I can't," Dr. Graboys said.

He does his best to keep up with his hobbies.

"I encourage myself to minimize the whining, to carry on, to use your energy in productive ways," Dr. Graboys explained.

He describes his daily challenges in his book. Writing it was his therapy

"You don't have to go this alone," Dr. Grayboys said. "In fact, you shouldn't go it alone."

Alzheimer's patients face confusion, fear and frustration. Sharing their struggles may help the next generation.

The national institute on aging recently launched two large Alzheimer's genetics studies. It's collecting and analyzing blood samples from thousands of families around the world who do and do not have late-onset Alzheimer's. The goal is to study 10,000 samples and identify more risk factors in the next five years.

For additional research on this article, click here.

To read Ivanhoe's full-length interview with Dr. Carrilla, click here.

Sign up for a free weekly e-mail on Medical Breakthroughs called First to Know by clicking here.

If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Melissa Medalie at mmedalie@ivanhoe.com.