Would you want to know? (See Details)

The FDA says a new form of PET scan of the brain can show the early development of amyloid plaques in the bran 10 to 20 years before the first symptoms of memory loss begin to show up. This article and video explain the process.

The question is, would you want to know? Will you get scanned? Would the possibility of early treatment slowing the progress of the disease be enough to offset the 10 or 20 extra years of worry about what will happen when the disease ultimately wins out over the treatments? Our best medicine today can only slow the onset, not prevent it. Alzheimer’s remains incurable and fatal at this point. Not only is it fatal, it kills in a horrific, demeaning fashion most of us find difficult to even contemplate.

For more discussion on why the diagnosis is so devastating, see this question, “How would you handle it is you were diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease?” and the answers and comments that followed.