“Is Alzheimer’s disease hereditary?”
My father suffered from Alzheimer’s at the age of 67 years. His father also suffered the condition in the later part of his life. What are my chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease? Is Alzheimer’s a hereditary disease?
5 Answers
Richard Grant Hunter
Neurologist
Depends on your age. Incidence of Alzheimers Disease depends on how old you are. If you live to 90, it might be 30 percent. It is considered a degenerative disease that gets worse with age.Usually genetics plays no known part. However there are 2 variants. One is genetic in origin. A small minority pf patients with Alzheimers suffer this and onset is early. The second group is felt to have a genetic vulnerability to the disorder. They may or may not get the disease. Several genes, in combination, make a patient more likely to get the disease than average. With 2 generations in your family with onset in their 60s, chances are still it is not heredity. But it could be suggestive. As genetic diagnosis gets better, you could get a chromosome study with a geneticist, but would suggest waiting a couple of years until testing is more sophisticated. Good luck!
It can be
Late onset Alzheimer's usually is not hereditary. Other factors play role too.
Yes, some are hereditary
Most forms of early onset Alzheimer’s are thought to be heritable. Later onset Alzheimer’s, occurring after 65 years of age is due to a combination of heritable and environmental factors. One factor increasing risk is the presence of a gene (or an allele) encoding for a type of protein called apolipoprotein. If one has one-or two copies of apolipoprotein 4, the risk of Alzheimer’s is significantly increased. Other factors such as diet may reduce the risk of acquiring the disease.
