New study reports on simple, reliable way to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease
Treatments remain elusive . . . .
A new study is boosting hopes there may be a simple, reliable way to help family doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.
Results printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association say accuracy could be as high as 98 percent.
Dr. Henry D. Petry, Director of the Freeman Center for Geriatric Medicine, says diagnosing the illness is one thing, treatment is another.
“I will tell you frankly, there is no treatment,” Dr. Petry states. “And even experimentally right now, in the research phase, there is no treatment that has done anything that has actually worked.”
Even so, Dr. Petrie says it is important to to keep out in front of the disease by managing diabetes and other health conditions and staying mentally active by playing mental games like repeating one’s Social Security number backward and avoiding isolation.
He says one particularly good way to keep the mind active – and have fun, too – is by playing jigsaw puzzles.