Earlier this month, we here at Freedom Home Care posted a blog about what to expect from a cognition assessment performed by a physician. We mentioned that failing memory can be a typical part of the aging process, but we also made note that it can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.
Assessing that risk early on is now more important than ever, according to the National Public Radio. In a recent article, the editors at NPR said that treatments have actually shown positive results when administered long before the signs of Alzheimer’s emerge.
“Once you start to lose a lot of synapses, once you start to lose a lot of neurons, your brain can't recover from that,” Bill Re

beck, a brain scientist at Georgetown University, said in the article. “And so when we start with people who have symptoms of the disease, treating them turns out to be unsuccessful.”
Researchers like Rebeck have been working on new techniques to determine whether Amyvid, a research tool approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, can reveal subtle changes in the brain that can trigger Alzheimer’s. It can also gauge the level of success of Alzheimer’s treatments. So far, Amyvid is proving to be quite effective.
To get details on the ongoing research, the NPR article goes into great length. To learn about the Alzheimer’s care services that Freedom Home Care can provide for you or your aging loved one, please contact us. We’re here to help.