A different tack

Scientist: Treat Alzheimer's 20 years before symptoms: 'Prevention is better than cure,' according to new report

One camp among Alzheimer’s researchers believes this shows that amyloid is simply not the cause. But the majority of researchers, like Gandy, believe that once the plaque appears the damage to the brain is too great to undo and the only hope is to prevent it. Recent studies using brain scans, spinal fluid and blood samples have been searching for signs that appear before the psychological tests reveal the onset of dementia. Much of this work is centered on the handful of families where some members carry a dominant gene variation that causes them to get Alzheimer’s in their 30s, 40s or 50s, but that type of screening is expected to become more common.

It is increasingly apparent from these studies that many of these changes occur as much as 20 years before the symptoms of the disease. Alzheimer's can progress at different rates but typically develops through different stages, beginning with mild cognitive impairment — forgetting familiar words or losing common objects — to difficulty performing tasks to severe dementia and the inability to carry on a conversation or control movements.