Do You Have This Alzheimer’s Warning Sign?

It’s one of the main problems with Alzheimer’s disease: Once you know you have it, it’s too late to do anything about it.

But what if you could catch it early, BEFORE any cognitive impairments start showing up?

Then you’d be able to take important steps to either stop—or, at the very least, SLOW its progression.

Now you can.

According to a study just published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers believe they have identified an extremely early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

In fact, it could show up 10 years before typical Alzheimer’s symptoms—giving you the early warning sign you need to stay ahead of the disease.

The early warning sign you should be looking out for is anxiety.

Depression and anxiety often go hand-in-hand in the medical community. Depression is already believed to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s, but this study was the first to single out anxiety.

What the researchers found was that having anxiety was a strong predictor of Alzheimer’s disease—and it showed up 10 years or more before any typical Alzheimer’s symptoms, such as memory lapses.

But the results revealed more than just an association between anxiety and Alzheimer’s.

The study looked at the presence of beta amyloid plaque, the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. These protein clumps build up in the brain, disrupting the signals between brain cells and contributing to the cognitive impairment that is characteristic of the disease.

The researchers found that people with higher amounts of beta amyloid in the brain were more likely to have anxiety symptoms that got worse with time, as opposed to other depression symptoms (like sadness or loss of interest).

The key here is that beta amyloid plaques appear to impact brain function LONG before they impact memory.

Of course, what this does NOT mean is that every person suffering from anxiety should now be concerned about developing Alzheimer’s.

What it does mean is that this symptom, along with others, could allow your doctor to catch the disease earlier than ever, giving you the best possible chance for slowing the progression of the disease.

To a brighter day,

Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.