Alzheimer’s May Be Genetic, Twins Study Shows
February 7th, 2006 by RespiteMatch.comTuesday, February 07, 2006
By Daniel J. DeNoon
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•Prevent Alzheimer’s With Healthy Living •Regular Exercise May Delay Alzheimer’s •The Drug Namenda Slows Alzheimer’s Disease •Statins Fight Alzheimer’s Disease •Resources for Alzheimer’s Patients and Families
Will you ever get Alzheimer’s disease? The genes you’ve inherited carry most of the risk, an identical-twin study shows.
It’s surprising news. While people clearly inherit Alzheimer’s disease risk, most researchers have given equal blame to “environmental factors.” These factors may include things we encounter, things we do or don’t do, or diseases we develop.
But an international study of nearly 12,000 Swedish twin pairs — a fourth of them identical twins — now finds that some 80 percent of Alzheimer’s risk is genetic. University of Southern California psychologist Margaret Gatz, PhD, and colleagues report the findings in the February issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
“It appears that genetic influences outweigh environmental influences in relative importance for Alzheimer’s risk,” Gatz tells WebMD.
What this means is that close relatives of people with Alzheimer’s disease are at much higher risk of getting the disease than people without such a relative. What it does not mean is that if you have such a relative, you’re doomed to get Alzheimer’s.
“‘Genetic’ does not mean cast in stone,” Gatz tells WebMD. “In no way is having a relative with Alzheimer’s disease — even a genetically identical twin — a guarantee that a person is going to get Alzheimer’s disease.”
