Family history of dementia ups risk of developing disease
- The risk of developing dementia is greatest if it runs in the family, says study
- Family history may alter a gene that increases the chance of being diagnosed
- Fiona Phillips, Davina McCall and Tony Robinson all fear inheriting the disease
Claudia Tanner For Mailonline
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Dementia runs in families, according to a new study.
The research suggests that a family history of Alzheimer’s may alter the gene that increases chances of developing the disease.
The findings may finally have identified the link that explains years of conflicting research.
Until now, around 30 separate genes have been linked to dementia with the genetic risk largely unexplained.
But a breakthrough study has found that one gene had a ‘dramatic difference’ in its impact on memory and cognitive function.
Middle-aged people with a family history of dementia and a longer version of the TOMM40 gene had twice as much memory loss up to 10 years later than those with the shorter gene version.
Dr Auriel Willette, of Iowa State University, said: ‘It was kind of a shot in the dark, but we found if you don’t have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, then having a longer version of the gene is a good thing.
The genetic risk involved in dementia has been largely misunderstood until now (stock)
‘It is related to better memory up to 10 years later and about one-fifth of the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease.
‘However, if your mum or dad has Alzheimer’s, then having a long version is bad. It’s a complete polar opposite.’
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According to the Alzheimer’s Society there are around 800,000 people in the UK with dementia.
One in three people over 65 will develop dementia, and two-thirds of people with dementia are women.
FIONA PHILLIPS ON HER FEARS SHE WILL DEVELOP DEMENTIA
Fiona is afraid she will ‘disappear’
TV host Fiona Phillips has spoken out about the toll Alzheimer’s took on her family which struck both her mother and father.
Fiona’s mother Amy started developing the early onsets of the condition at the alarmingly young age of 53, before she died tragically in 2006, aged 74.
Her father Phil was also struck down by the condition in his early 60s and spent the end of his life in a warden-assisted flat, before moving to a psychiatric hospital where he died in 2012, aged 76.
Two years ago year, the 56-year-old former GMTV presenter spoke to The Mirror about her anxiety over inheriting the disease herself – fearing she will ‘disappear’.
She said: ‘I need to sort out an action plan that can be used if I ‘disappear’… Of course I fear inheriting the disease with my family history, and I sometimes wake up in the night feeling anxious and worried about it.
‘My parents were relatively young when they got it; my mum was in her early 50s, although at the time, we just put it down to her being eccentric.’
A number of celebrities have spoken out about their fears of inheriting the disease, including Fiona Phillips, Davina McCall and Tony Robinson.
The study also found an association between the gene, family history and mitochondrial function, which creates energy to power cells.
Dr Willette and his colleagues tracked changes in memory loss and cognitive function over time for middle-aged people at risk for Alzheimer’s, while the other group tracks similar changes in older people with and without the disease.
Dr Willette says without the figures, researchers would have little understanding of the disease’s progression.
Their goal is to identify ‘unifying factors’ that may trigger the disease by analysing changes in the brain, the blood and other areas of the body.
Dr Willette said the challenge is pinpointing why some people get Alzheimer’s and others don’t.
He said: ‘As researchers, it feels like we’re on a train with a thousand different levers and buttons.
‘We as a scientific community are trying to pull every lever and push every button to see which one is the brake.
‘At the end of the day, this is all about better understanding how and how soon we get the disease.
‘The hope is that knowing this will inform us about new steps we can take to slow down the progression.’
The findings were published online by the journal Alzheimer’s Dementia.
The number of people with dementia is increasing because people are living longer. It is estimated that by 2021, the number of people with dementia in the UK will have increased to around 1 million.
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