Alzheimer’s Association International Conference leads to new findings about disease

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – At the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Philadelphia, a couple of discoveries are being made that will affect more than just those in Kentucky.

Certain blood tests, while not FDA approved just yet, are 90 to 95% accurate in finding a kind of protein that may detect Alzheimer’s or Dementia.

“Those proteins are gunking up the brain and they think that they are causing cognitive decline… so if you could get a blood test to see the levels of protein that are in your blood… how much amyloid protein is in your blood during that test with 90% accuracy, then you might not have to have additional testing like amyloid pet scans or a lumbar puncture,” Shannon White, Chapter Executive of the Greater Kentucky & Southern Indiana Alzheimer’s Association says.

The other finding involves wildfire smoke and the harms it can cause related to these diseases.

White says it may be related to the pollutants found in the smoke itself.

“We’ve always known that air pollution and toxins in the air are not good for your brain health… but really wildfires, it seems, have even more of an impact on your brain health. It’s mainly because there’s so many more toxic elements in wildfire smoke that is really affecting brain health and can increase your risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s,” she says.