There have been many breakthroughs in the field of Alzheimer’s and dementia research, such as the having a healthy diet will help prevent dementia, but this latest one will change the way we detect the disease. Scientists have come up with a new blood test that predicts Alzheimer’s disease, more correctly it predicts whether a person will develop the disease within three years with 90% accuracy. That’s possible with the help of 10 biomarkers that are the basis of the test. These amazing findings were published in Nature Medicine.

The test won’t only tell you if you’re going to develop Alzheimer’s, but also any type of cognitive decline. That is absolutely incredible! Study leader, Howard J. Federoff, tells us that the new blood test will help identify the people who are at risk for progressive cognitive decline. This will change how the patients are treated, how their families and friends will interact with them. It will basically change the way we look at Alzheimer and dementia.

In the year 2010 there were around 35 million people living with the disease worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that the number will double every 20 years and that in the year 2050 there will be 114 million people living with Alzheimer’s disease.

There is no cure to Alzheimer’s disease that is why this new blood test will change things dramatically. Scientists believe that we currently can’t halt or cure the disease because we have no way of detecting it before it happens. Now we do, and this opens the door into a whole new field of research. Who can say that the drugs used to help with the disease at the late stages, won’t work wonders if taken before there are any signs of the disease?

As mentioned the new blood test that predicts Alzheimer has a 90% accuracy of detecting the disease three years before the patient exhibits sings of the disease, but that leaves 10% open to questions. Professor Federoff said that there were no false negatives in the test, so that can only mean that the 10% are false positives? We’re certain new studies will follow.