What if You Knew Alzheimer’s Was Coming for You?<br />“The sooner you know your gene status, the sooner you can start doing something about it.”<br />Not all cases of Alzheimer’s can be traced to a particular gene variance, but for someone like Theresa — who has two copies of ApoE4 and is now in her late 50s — chances are high<br />that she will be diagnosed with the disease within the next 10 to 20 years.<br />He called for new approaches to combating the disease, including developing “a more reliable, affordable and accessible diagnostic — such as a blood test.” Mr. Gates also announced<br />that he would be donating $100 million to fight Alzheimer’s, which will no doubt help to make blood tests a reality.<br />“If you’re working in a professional capacity, seeing clients who need to have confidence in your brain,” she said, “you wouldn’t want them to know<br />that you had this gene variant.” She is afraid of being denied insurance and long-term disability care because of her genotype.<br />In the difficult months after her genetic test, Ms. Gregory “wanted to be with people<br />who were going through the same devastation,” so she sought out other ApoE4 carriers.<br />So you may be faced with some difficult choices within the next decade: Do you want to receive<br />potentially alarming news about your cognitive health, or would you rather not?<br />Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania,<br />studies how people at high risk of Alzheimer’s disease cope with that knowledge.
