Asking questions and dealing with the answers
One motivation to getting my genome sequenced was to see whether I had known risk alleles for dementia (spoiler alert: I don’t). My dad was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia a few years before he died. His brain biopsy after death returned a diagnosis of Alzheimers. He might have had both.
One of the known risk alleles is ApoE4. Homozygosity for ApoE4 is a strong predictor of Alzheimers by the eighth decade. I knew I wasn’t homozygous for ApoE4, because that condition is also associated with hyperlipidemia, and I’ve always had a normal lipid panel. But what would I have done if I had other risk alleles for AD or FTD? It was certainly something I was aware of, just like the risk of discovering that I might have a high risk for colon cancer or that my custodial father was not my biological father.
Yesterday, I read the attached link about a neurologist who learned that he’s homozygous for APOE4 and is experiencing the early stages of dementia.
“But Gibbs, who turns 73 years old in July, does have Alzheimer disease, and in hindsight believes that his first symptom occurred back in 2006, when he began to lose his sense of smell. At the time, he chalked it up to normal aging.
“Six years later, though, he took a DNA test to inform his wife’s genealogy research. The results would be life-changing. Besides learning where his ancestors had lived and whether his face is likely to flush after drinking alcohol, Gibbs discovered he had 2 copies of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele. As a practicing neurologist, he knew that homozygosity for APOE4 meant he had a greatly increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease.
“It has now been 8 years since Gibbs was diagnosed with the condition.”
He’s doing things to slow the disease progression. Of course, every individual is an experiment without a control, so we don’t know whether the measures are significant medically. But they certainly have given Dr. Gibbs a sense of mastery over his remaining life.
A neurologist with Alzheimers
Joel:
I do not have an issue with cholesterol or triglycerides. Early on and when much younger (decades ago), a blood draw revealed I was at 205 for the former. Since this became a known (back then) issue for heart issues, my PCP sent me to a dietician who schooled me on what to do. I did what she said even though she said I would never get down 20%. Proved her wrong over the years. I did better.
Activity helped. Changed my diet. Sterols and Stanols seem to help. I was about 113 when I had open heart surgery. They could not blame that for my plugged arteries. I was running and hiking miles. Diet was fine. None of which I am saying here means one should not exercise or eat healthy.
My survival was probably the result of what I was doing health wise.
Triglycerides are at a normal level and well withing the range then and now. I have no explanation for my issues withing the last decade. I am still here.
@Bill,
Credit clean living and good genetics.
Joel:
Oh yeah, that fits me alright . . .