March 11, 2008 Alzheimer's risk doubles if both parents have disease Play video

(NECN) - It can be a terrifying time for any adult child, caring for a parent with Alzheimer's disease. There is always the question --- will they get it too? In a first of its kind study, researchers have found a way to determine risk, and they found if both of your parents have the disease, your risk doubles.

NECN's Ally Donnelly has details.

Script:

Carol Ann Gould takes care of her aging father. He is 89 and has Alzheimer's. It is a role reversal that has left the Waltham, Massachusetts woman grappling with issues she never thought she'd confront.

"Taking his car away -- how do you do that and still have somebody maintain their dignity?"

Gould's mother also has dementia and visiting her parents, the 67-year-old secretary at Mass General Hospital worries about what could happen to her own mind.

"I leave there panicking inside, really, because if I have a senior moment, which at this age you do, I'm like, oh my god, is this starting?"

Gould may have reason to worry. A new study funded by the National Institute on Aging finds that children have double the risk of developing Alzheimer's if both of their parents have the disease.

The second greatest risk factor after age is family history.

Doctor Rudolph Tanzi -- also of MGH -- discovered the first Alzheimer gene in the 1980s. He says an increased risk is not necessarily a death sentence. There are two types of genes -- one that is definitive -- if you have the

It becomes an equation of, did you inherit just the right component of genes, and then it's a combination of how you're living your life, your lifestyle and environmental factors.

The study of more than 100 families where both parents had Alzheimer's -- found that nearly 23% of the adult children had the disease themselves. Within that group -- risk grew with age. If the children were 61 to 70, a third were affected --- if they were older than 70, 42% had the disease. In the general, senior population, about 6-13% of Americans have Alzheimer's.

A healthy low-fat diet, lots of physical exercise and mental exercise might help beat the disease. Nothing beats physical exercise -- keeping blood flow going to the brain.

As the population ages, experts say 16 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's disease -- all needing care. That's why, they say it's critical that society confront not only the issues facing patients, but those facing caregivers as well.

Barbara Moscowitz: "If an older adult gets a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, sadly too often, the family is handed a brochure or two, but then they're on their own."

Barbara Moscowitz is a geriatric social worker and calls people caring for parents with Alzheimer's the "invisible sufferers."

There's a very high correlation between caregivers in the midst of caregiving and depression, exhaustion and stress related illnesses.

She says caregivers must have access to a support network -- like Gould, they are trying to perhaps work a full-time job, while caring for their own and their parents' health issues, finances and emotional concerns.

"Our society does not yet understand the magnitude of what's coming and what already is."

Dr. Tanzi is working to complete that puzzle. He is trying to find the remaining genes that influence Alzheimer's -- saying early neurological intervention can be critical, not only for patient care but for finding a cure.

"It increases our ability to reliably predict disease and then you say well why do that if you can't help them, but it also teaches you biologically what's going wrong. The gene will give you a new biological target for new therapies and new drug discovery."

Discovery, Gould hopes comes soon.