Silkroad Online Forums

A few days ago I saw a report saying that a blood test may be able to tell if you will get Alzheimer's Disease. There is no know cure for Alzheimer's and no way to prevent it. You would essentially be knowing that you were eventually going to lose your mind.

My grandmother has Alzheimer's and has no idea where she is or who we are. She has gotten worse and worse every year. She's still alive but it's just hard seeing her slip away day by day.

I don't think I could take knowing that one day I would lose my mind. I would probably just lose hope in life :[

I didn't bother looking up an article because this is not really something that would be available to the public for another seven years(according to the report I saw).

No, but its also not a big deal. If you make it to that age you had the chance to live a good life.

If they could get it to tell me an approximate age when it would start to effect me I'd love to know. You're essentially knowing the future.

Nah... I don't think so.

Yeah. If I knew I was going to have it, I also know I'd forget it anyway.

No. I don't wanna know the future.

I think I already have it. I can't remember anything that happened yesterday or prior to that.

And preparation is always nice.

The disease takes everything away from you. It's not just your memory that it takes away. Once it progresses to the late stage, your judgement becomes completely impaired to the point that you might be playing with your own feces, you're unable to communicate because words become meaningless noise, you forget how to speak, you forget what food is or how to eat or even swallow. You lose control of your bladder and your bowel. You won't recognize your own children or spouse. You become completely helpless and if you have an onset diabetes and become bed-ridden, there's also a high likelihood of you having vascular problems and developing ulcers everywhere. You might lose a toe, a leg, or both -- without even knowing you did. You spend your days listening to other confused patients waiting for your soiled diaper to be changed by a lazy nursing home aide who might or might not be an abusive person. You'll be in constant pain without knowing how to tell someone about it or ease it.

Piece of advise: make an advanced directive never to place you on gastric tube feeding unless it's on a short trial run only. That way, you can die with some dignity instead of indefinitely becoming a source of revenue for some wealthy hospital owners long after you forgot you were alive.

Do I want to know if I'm going to end up having it later on? Yes, so I can place myself on palliative care once it starts progressing.

Terry Pratchett made an interesting and incredibly depressing documentary about assisted suicide; he wants to make a decision while hes able, to die before getting into the stage inky described.

Some times.. not knowing is better than knowing.
Well, wouldn't it be better, if they say that... you have a tendency to develop Alzheimer's?