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A NEW BLOOD TEST FOR ALZHEIMERS · Your Daily Dose

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  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, welcome. It's 9-9-26. September already rolling along. Today
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  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about a new article that came
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  Speaker 1: out in the Journal of Dementia and Alzheimer's, a new
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  Speaker 1: blood test. It may help to detect Alzheimer's years before.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me that isn't a test you'd like to have done.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get involved in that and get some details. Stay tuned.
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  Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to Health Talk with Dr. Len, your
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  Speaker 1: daily dose. The information you hear on this show is informational.
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  Speaker 1: It's not meant to diagnose or treat any disease. Any
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  Speaker 1: kind of complete health conditions must be checked out and
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  Speaker 1: discussed with your primary care physician. Get ready for the
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  Speaker 1: good news of the day. God bless you folks. And
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  Speaker 1: here is Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Lin.
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  Speaker 1: Our daily devotional today comes from the book of Isaiah
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  Speaker 1: chapter 26. Walk with me along the paths of trust.
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  Speaker 1: The most direct route between point A and point B
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  Speaker 1: on your life journey is the path of unwavering trust
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  Speaker 1: in me. When your faith falters, You choose a trail
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  Speaker 1: that meanders and takes you well out of your way.
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  Speaker 1: You will get to point B eventually, but you have
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  Speaker 1: lost precious time and energy. As soon as you realize
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  Speaker 1: you've wandered from your trust path, look to me and whisper,
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  Speaker 1: I trust you, Jesus. This affirmation will get you back
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  Speaker 1: on track. The farther you roam along the paths of unbelief,
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  Speaker 1: the harder it is to remember that I am with you.
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  Speaker 1: Anxious thoughts branch off in all directions, taking you farther
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  Speaker 1: and farther from awareness of my presence. You need to
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  Speaker 1: voice your trust in me frequently. This simple act of
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  Speaker 1: faith will keep you walking along straight paths with me.
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  Speaker 1: Trust in me with all your heart, and I will
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  Speaker 1: make your paths straight.
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  Speaker 2: I love it.
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  Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: 727-916-4215 When memory problems begin, One of.
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  Speaker 1: The hardest questions for patients' families is whether they reflect
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  Speaker 1: normal aging or the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. For decades,
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  Speaker 1: confronting Alzheimer's disease meant a spinal tap or an expensive
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  Speaker 1: brain scan. Now, a simple blood draw, the kind used
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  Speaker 1: for routine checkups, can flag the disease telltale signs years
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  Speaker 1: before memory loss ever appears. The shift gained new weight
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  Speaker 1: with the recent FDA authorization of certain Alzheimer's blood tests.
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  Speaker 1: a milestone that experts said could make evaluation more accessible,
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  Speaker 1: one that arrives alongside new disease-modifying treatments for early-stage patients.
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  Speaker 1: Early detection of Alzheimer's disease can provide access to disease-modifying therapies,
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  Speaker 1: such as amyloid-treating treatments, currently available only for mild cognitive
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  Speaker 1: impairment or mild dementia due to Alzheimer's. However, the same
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  Speaker 1: experts who welcomed the tests are urging caution about who
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  Speaker 1: should get one and why. The test looks for biomarkers,
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  Speaker 1: proteins in the blood that single changes that are happening
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  Speaker 1: in the brain, including amyloid beta, a protein that causes
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  Speaker 1: abnormal buildup in the brain, tau, T-A-U, a protein that
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  Speaker 1: helps support nerve cells, phosphorylated tau, modified forms of tau
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  Speaker 1: that are closely linked to Alzheimer's, gliofibrillary acetic protein, a
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  Speaker 1: marker of inflammation in the brain's support cells, neurofilament light chains,
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  Speaker 1: a protein release when nerve cells are damaged, which may
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  Speaker 1: indicate ongoing neurodegeneration. Still, researchers caution that these markers capture
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  Speaker 1: downstream effects, not root causes. We do not yet know
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  Speaker 1: what the earliest change in Alzheimer's disease is, said George Perry,
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  Speaker 1: a professor of neurobiology at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
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  Speaker 1: Tao helps to identify Alzheimer's-related brain changes in people who
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  Speaker 1: are already showing cognitive symptoms. He says, however, researchers believe
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  Speaker 1: The disease begins with other biological changes such as oxidative
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  Speaker 1: stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, for which reliable biomarkers have yet
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  Speaker 1: to be established. I will take aim with that one.
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  Speaker 1: By measuring subtle changes in proteins such as PTAL217 and MLA-beta,
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  Speaker 1: newer blood tests can estimate whether the brain has markers
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  Speaker 1: of Alzheimer's. A 2024 study of 1,213 people undergoing evaluation
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  Speaker 1: for memory and cognitive issues found that these tests were
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  Speaker 1: 88 to 92% accurate. A study of 1,759 participants found
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  Speaker 1: that blood testing could match the accuracy of spinal fluid
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  Speaker 1: analysis up to 95% of the people with early symptoms.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the accuracy of figures, experts agree that a blood
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  Speaker 1: test alone cannot diagnose Alzheimer's. The biggest concern is misinterpretation,
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  Speaker 1: said Dr. David Perlmutter, a board-certified neurologist and author of
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  Speaker 1: Brain Defenders. A false positive may cause unnecessary fear, while
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  Speaker 1: a false negative may provide false reassurance. These tests should
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  Speaker 1: be used with counseling and clinical context. Perry drew a
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  Speaker 1: comparison to a familiar and famously imperfect screening tool. I
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  Speaker 1: see Alzheimer's disease blood tests such as PSA. The positive
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  Speaker 1: results indicate a departure from normal, but does not necessarily
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  Speaker 1: mean a person has the disease, in this case, prostate cancer.
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  Speaker 1: Blood tests could serve as a useful baseline measure, but
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  Speaker 1: their limitations need to be better understood. That's why Perry
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  Speaker 1: cautions about using these tests to screen the general population.
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  Speaker 1: False positives can push cognitively healthy people toward unnecessary or
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  Speaker 1: risky treatments to prevent a disease they may not have
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  Speaker 1: ever gotten. Their stronger near-term use may be in studying Alzheimer's,
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  Speaker 1: defining patient population and measuring the effectiveness of different treatments.
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  Speaker 1: These tests can be viewed as part of a broader
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  Speaker 1: clinical evaluation alongside symptoms, family history, Cognitive testing, medication, sleep, mood,
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  Speaker 1: vascular changes, metabolic health markers, and possible causes of cognitive problems.
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  Speaker 1: Depending on the blood test and symptoms assessment, treating with
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  Speaker 1: cerebral spinal fluid or PET imaging may still need to
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  Speaker 1: be appropriate. Good Lord, there is so much when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about mitochondrial dysfunction and dimethylglycine and brain support, and
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  Speaker 1: you get down the list of the nutritional problems factors
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  Speaker 1: that are there if you have somebody in your family
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  Speaker 1: friends relatives that are showing these early signs it's never
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  Speaker 1: too soon to actually get a protocol put together with
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  Speaker 1: them if you need help with that give me a
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  Speaker 1: call 727-916-4215 god bless folks