From: gemini23x@gmail.com   
      
   HEALTH MEDICINE   
   Early-Onset Alzheimer’s: What You Need to Know   
   Mandy Oaklander @mandyoaklander   
   June 28, 2016 SHARE   
   Pat Summitt's death at age 64 was caused by an uncommon kind of Alzheimer's   
      
   Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, is usually a disease   
   of the elderly. Symptoms generally first start to appear when people are in   
   their mid-60s. Rarely, Alzheimer’s also affects people much younger,   
   sometimes people in their 40s    
   and 50s. It struck Pat Summitt, the renowned basketball coach who captured the   
   most wins ever in Division 1 basketball, at age 59. Just five years later, at   
   64, early-onset Alzheimer’s claimed her life.   
      
   Early-onset Alzheimer’s accounts for 5% of the nearly 5 million   
   Alzheimer’s cases in the U.S. Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of   
   death in the U.S.   
      
      
   Here’s what else you need to know.   
      
   What is early-onset Alzheimer’s disease?   
      
   “It’s a particularly tragic form of Alzheimer’s disease, because it   
   typically affects people during their peak time of productivity,” says Dr.   
   Thomas Wisniewski, director of the Center for Cognitive Neurology at NYU   
   Langone Medical Center. Early    
   Alzheimer’s disease is thought to have a greater genetic influence than the   
   kind that strikes later, and “much more commonly, there’s a family   
   history,” Wisniewski says.   
      
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   What causes it?   
      
      
   Why some people get Alzheimer’s disease is still mostly a mystery. But most   
   people who get early-onset Alzheimer’s disease have a family history,   
   Wisniewski says, and about 10% of cases are caused by mutations in three known   
   genes: presenilin 1,    
   presenilin 2 and amyloid beta precursor protein (APP). These mutations are   
   closely linked to the overproduction of amyloid beta, sticky proteins that can   
   clump together form plaques in the brain, suffocating neurons. As for the   
   cause of the other 90% of    
   early Alzheimer’s cases: “We just don’t know,” Wisniewski says. “A   
   lot more work has to be done on this.”   
      
   Excessive amyloid seems to play a key role in early-onset Alzheimer’s. The   
   largest set of people who have the disease are those with Down s   
   ndrome—people born with three copies of chromosome 21. “That chromosome is   
   where the amyloid precursor    
   protein is, so they produce a lot more amyloid beta,” Wisniewski says,   
   adding that nearly all people with Down syndrome show Alzheimer’s disease   
   pathology.   
      
   What are the symptoms?   
      
      
   Short-term memory loss is a symptom in the majority of Alzheimer’s cases,   
   and while that’s still true of early-onset, this rare form sometimes   
   presents in ways that have nothing to do with memory. In about a quarter of   
   cases, people with early-onset    
   have difficulty controlling their gaze, processing visual information, doing   
   calculations or have problems with speech, says Wisniewski.   
      
   How long do people usually live after diagnosis?   
      
   Otherwise healthy people will typically live for another 10 to 12 years,   
   Wisniewski says. “The pathology of early Alzheimer’s is more severe, so   
   that can lead to a shorter survival, but a lot is dependent on how much   
   nursing and supportive care they    
   get.”   
      
   How do people actually die from Alzheimer’s?   
      
   Alzheimer’s can cause medical complications, like infections, that are   
   driven by the disease. “People will most commonly die of aspiration   
   pneumonia; when they’re trying to take in food or liquids, it just goes to   
   their lungs and they die,”    
   Wisniewski says. As Alzheimer’s progresses, people can develop compromised   
   immune systems, making it harder to fight off infection and be physically   
   active. Because it complicates all other medical conditions, and because it   
   requires such comprehensive    
   care, Alzheimer’s disease is the single most costly condition in America.   
      
      
      
   http://time.com/4385383/pat-summitt-death-alzheimers-disease-dementia/   
      
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