New blood test for Alzheimers - how can we make sense of the news?

I was asked to comment on the radio news about a “new” blood test for Alzheimers. I had time to look and see what was in the news. Start with Google and the BBC.

There was a BBC story in November 2023, nearly three months before, saying that Lottery funding had been provided to try out a blood test, and it was hard to work out if this was a new test in late January or just a recycled story about the old one.

Turning to the papers, they all had it. But what were they saying? I copied them out, using capital letters to check the differences. Here’s what I found on my list. The Sun said the new test “CAN accurately predict” Alzheimer’s. The Financial Times was less certain saying it “boosts HOPES OF” early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Quite a difference. The Independent said the test “COULD spot cruel disease 15 years before symptoms…”. “Could” is different from “Can”. “Could” is hypothetical, and do they tell us what it depends upon? ITV on line was even more cautious. Rather than “can detect disease” (the Express) it said it “COULD HELP diagnose”. I “could” help them with their headlines, but I’m not going to. MSN said it “COULD pave the way…”. Paving the way is a bit more preliminary than being “better than a range of other tests…” (Evening Standard). But then the Standard pulls back, revealing that the range of tests it is referring to is “currently under development”. So it’s claiming that it is better than something that’s not been made yet. Odd.

So how can we make sense of it?

The problem is that it’s complicated. Alzheimer’s is a brain disease. In many people it causes dementia. Dementia is a bunch of symptoms. Some people have Alzheimer’s disease but no dementia symptoms. Some people have dementia symptoms but do not have Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with circulating levels of certain proteins. If you have these proteins you are likely to get Alzheimer’s disease eventually but you might not get dementia. If you don’t have these proteins you are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease but you might still get dementia.

So my advice, if anyone is still awake and reading, is that we all assume we are likely to get Alzheimer’s disease and/or dementia and make some life choices that mean we live as well as possible for as long as possible, even if our assumption is right. There’s no harm if our assumption was wrong because it’s all stuff we should do anyway, like exercise, eat right, go steady on the alcohol, don’t smoke, avoid head banging, and get your hearing checked after 65.

And avoid getting excited about headlines.

There’s much more about how to stay well on this website and in the audio book Dementia the One Stop Guide.