What is Too Young to Develop Alzheimer’s Disease?

Are you caring for a loved one with dementia? You don't have to figure this out all on your own. Welcome to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's, the show that helps you reimagine a new relationship with your loved one, a relationship a little more free of stress and anxiety. Join host Lisa Skinner and her 30+ years of experience as she guides you on a new path to a better relationship with those you care for. Here's Lisa.

Hi everybody. Welcome to another brand new episode of The Truth Lies in Alzheimer's Show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host, and I have another really powerful episode planned for you today. I was thinking recently that in the last couple years, I've been hearing about a lot more people being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. And I've always known it to be a pretty rare form of Alzheimer's disease. This is Alzheimer's that strikes people under the age of 65. And it seems like in the last couple years, I have more and more people being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. So I did some research on it because I wanted to find out why the uptick in early onset Alzheimer's disease of late. So This is what I found that I want to share with you. This article was published through the Harvard Health Publishing, and it's through the Harvard Medical School. And this particular article was published by a Dr. Andrew Budson. So the name of the article is I'm Too Young to Have Alzheimer's Disease or Dementia, right? Right, and it was published on June 20th, 2022, and this is what Dr. Budson tells us. If you're in your 80s or 70s and you've noticed that you're having some memory loss, it might be reasonable to be concerned that you could be developing Alzheimer's disease or another form of dementia. But what if you're only in your 60s, 50s, or even 40s? Surely those ages would be too young for Alzheimer's disease or dementia, right? Well, about 10% of Alzheimer's disease is young onset, starting before the age of 65. Not necessarily. Of the more than 55 million people currently living in the US with dementia, approximately 60 to 70% of them have Alzheimer's disease. And of those 33 to 38.5 million people with Alzheimer's disease, memory loss or other symptoms began before the age of 65 in 10% of them. Alzheimer's is in fact the most common cause of young onset dementia. A recent study from the Netherlands found that of those who have a known classification of their young onset dementia, 55% had Alzheimer's disease, 11% were suffering from vascular dementia, which is caused by strokes and trans-encephalic attacks, or TIAs, 3% had frontotemporal lobe dementia, 3% with Parkinson's disease including dementia, 2% with Lewy body dementia, and 2% with primary progressive aphasia. To be clear, young onset dementia, and that is by definition starting prior to age 65, and sometimes called early onset dementia, is considered uncommon. One study in Norway found that young onset dementia occurred in 163 people out of every 100,000 individuals. That's in less than 0.5% of the population. So if you're younger than 65, and you've noticed some trouble with your memory, you have a 99.5% chance of there being a cause other than dementia. Phew, he says. There are a few exceptions to this statement because they have an extra copy of the chromosome that carries the gene for the amyloid found in Alzheimer's plaques. More than half of people with Down syndrome develop Alzheimer's disease, typically in their 40s and 50s. Other genetic abnormalities that run in families can also cause Alzheimer's disease to start in people in their 50s, their 40s, and even in their 30s. But you would know if you are at risk because one of your parents would have had young onset Alzheimer's disease. So how does young onset Alzheimer's disease differ from late onset Alzheimer's disease? The first thing that should be clearly stated is that just as no two people are the same, No two individuals with Alzheimer's disease show the same symptoms, even if the disease started at the same age. We have a saying in the Alzheimer's arena that if you've met one person with Alzheimer's disease, you have literally met one person with Alzheimer's disease. And Dr. Budson is supporting that statement with what he's saying here. Nevertheless, There are some differences between young onset and late onset Alzheimer's disease. Here they are. People with typical late onset Alzheimer's disease starting at the age 65 or older show the combination of changes in thinking and memory due to Alzheimer's disease, plus those changes that are part of normal aging. The parts of the brain that change the most in normal aging are the frontal lobes. The frontal lobes are responsible for many different cognitive functions, including your working memory, which is the ability to keep information in one's head and manipulate it, and insight into the problems that one is having. So you would imagine that life is tougher for those with late onset Alzheimer's disease, right? Says Dr. Budson. Again, depression and anxiety are more common in young onset Alzheimer's disease. That is interesting. People with late onset Alzheimer's disease do show more impairment on average in their cognition and in their daily function than those with younger onset Alzheimer's disease, at least when the disease starts. However, because their insight is also impaired, those with late onset disease don't notice these difficulties as much. Most of his patients with late onset Alzheimer's disease will tell him either that their memory problems are quite mild or that they don't have any memory problems at all. By contrast, because they have more insight, patients with young onset Alzheimer's disease are often depressed about their situation and anxious about their future, a finding that was recently confirmed by a group of researchers in Canada. And As if having Alzheimer's disease at a young age wasn't enough to cause depression and anxiety, recent evidence suggests that in— that those with young onset Alzheimer's disease, the pathology or the disease progresses more quickly. Another tragic aspect of young onset Alzheimer's disease is that by affecting individuals in the prime of their lives, It tends to disrupt families more than the late onset Alzheimer's disease typically does. Teenage and young adult children are no longer able to look to their parents for guidance. Individuals who may be caring for their children in the home now need to care for their spouse as well, preparing in addition to caring for their aging parent and also holding down a full-time job. What should you do if you're younger than age 65 and you're noticing that you're starting to have memory problems? You ask yourself, what else could be causing memory problems at a young age? Well, the most common cause of memory problems below age 65, believe it or not, is poor sleep. Other causes of young onset memory problems include perimenopause, medication side effects, depression, anxiety, illegal drugs, alcohol, cannabis, head injuries, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid disorders, chemotherapy, strokes, and other neurological disorders. So here are some of the things that Dr. Budson recommends that everyone at any age can do to improve their memory and reduce their risk of dementia. You can perform aerobic exercises, eat Mediterranean-style meals, avoid alcohol, cannabis, and drugs, get a good night's sleep every night. Participate in social activities and pursue novel and cognitively stimulating activities. Also, listen to music, practice mindfulness, and keep a positive mental attitude. So a little bit about our author, Dr. Andrew E. Budson. He's the chief of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the Veterans Affairs Boston Health Care System and a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School and chair of the Science of Learning Innovation Group. So in addition to this article that I found written by Dr. Budson, I did some further research of my own to find out why it seems like more people are being diagnosed with early onset disease than I personally have ever seen before. And this is what I found out. The increase in the diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's disease may be due to a combination of factors, including increased awareness and improved diagnostic techniques. Here are a few potential reasons for the apparent rise in diagnoses. Number one is our aging population. As the population ages, the number of people at risk for Alzheimer's disease does increase. This is particularly relevant for early onset Alzheimer's disease, which affects individuals under the age of 65. Number 2 is that we do have improved diagnostic methods. The advances in medical imaging, genetic testing, and biomarker research have led to better and earlier detection of Alzheimer's disease, including the early onset form. Number 3, there's increased awareness. There has been a greater emphasis on educating healthcare professionals and the public about the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, leading to more individuals seeking diagnosis and treatment. Number 4, our changes in lifestyle and environmental factors. Some research suggests that certain lifestyle and environmental factors, and we've talked about this on previous episodes. For example, the diet you maintain, the exercise you get, and exposure to pollutants may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease. There have been many, many studies that have a— that make correlations between those. Changes in these factors over time could potentially contribute to an increased risk of early onset Alzheimer's as well. Number 5 are genetic factors. While early onset Alzheimer's is relatively rare and often linked to specific genetic mutations, increased awareness and access to genetic testing may be leading to more cases being identified. More environmental factors would be changes in the environmental factors, such as increased exposure to certain toxins or pollutants. And those could potentially contribute to the rising incidence of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Research in this area is ongoing and may provide more insights for us in the future. And of course, we have again lifestyle factors, but they've added to that, like increased stress, poor sleep habits, and unhealthy diets have been associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. However, changes in lifestyle patterns in the population over time may be influencing the prevalence of early onset Alzheimer's disease. Shifts in population-level risk factors such as cardiovascular health, diabetes, and obesity could very well impact the prevalence of early onset Alzheimer's disease, as these conditions are known to be linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline. Now we've also seen changes in reporting and data collection. Improvements in data collection methods, including electronic health records and disease registries, may have led to better tracking and reporting of Alzheimer's disease cases, potentially contributing to the observed increase in diagnoses. And Advances in technology and research. Technology advances in brain imaging, biomarker analysis, and genetic testing have provided researchers and clinicians with more tools to detect and diagnose early onset Alzheimer's disease. These technological advances may have led to a greater ability to identify cases that might have been missed in the past. And then finally, the shift in demographics. Changes in demographic patterns such as population growth, urbanization, and immigration can all influence the prevalence and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. These shifts may be the result in a larger pool of people at risk for the condition. The youngest age at which a person has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease can vary, but generally early onset disease is diagnosed in individuals who, who are under the age of 65. In rare cases, individuals in their 30s and 40s have been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, But these cases are still being classified as being uncommon. I did read once that a person at the age of 31 years old had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, but that was a while ago. So, uh, not sure if, um, anybody younger to date has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. So in conclusion, it's really important to note that early onset Alzheimer's is still considered relatively rare, and the vast majority of Alzheimer's cases do still occur in individuals over the age of 65. However, when early onset Alzheimer's does occur, it can have a significant impact on individuals their families, their careers, as it often strikes during a person's prime working and family-raising years. The exact causes of early onset Alzheimer's are still not fully understood, but they are thought to involve a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Ongoing research is aimed at better understanding the underlying mechanisms of early onset Alzheimer's and in developing more effective treatments for this challenging condition. Early onset Alzheimer's disease can more likely have a genetic component compared to late onset Alzheimer's, which is more commonly associated with genetic risk factors. Genetic testing and counseling may be recommended for individuals with a family history of early onset Alzheimer's. So some really, really powerful and interesting information about early onset Alzheimer's disease. Some of these I wasn't aware of myself, so this has been a real learning experience for as well, and good information for all of us to know. It's out there. According to what I researched, it's still considered rare and uncommon, but this will give you a little more education about maybe what to look for, what to notice with early onset Alzheimer's disease. So that's the show for today. We'll be back next week with another new episode of The Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host, and I really appreciate y'all taking the time to listen to my episodes every week. And I truly and sincerely hope that the information I bring to you each week makes your lives a little easier. And empowers you to take charge of the situation if you have found yourself thrust into it. So have a good week, and we'll see you back next week for another new episode of the Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. Take good care. Bye-bye.

Thank you for listening to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's. We hope you found something in today's episode that helps. We understand that caring for a loved one with dementia can be the challenge of a lifetime, but you don't have to do it alone. If you're ready for exclusive access to even more great content and resources, head on over to Facebook and join Lisa Skinner's Minding Dementia support group. We're a community of like-minded caregivers, and we're here To help.