• 13
  • January
    2012

Alzheimer's disease typically begins to affect individuals in their later years of life. Some symptoms individuals may begin to experience if they have the degenerative brain disease are memory loss and the gradual loss of other cognitive abilities as the disease progresses, making it difficult for individuals with the illness to do the things they were once fully capable of doing.

Due to the debilitating effects of the disease, individuals who are diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's may be eligible to apply for Social Security Disability benefits. Because these individuals may not be able to afford waiting several months for their benefits to be approved, the Social Security Administration has listed the disease on the administration's Compassionate Allowances program (CAL) list. This means that individuals may be eligible to expedite their claims for disability benefits so that they can get the financial assistance they need in a timely manner.

Although disability benefits may help those who have early-onset Alzheimer's, discovering that one may begin to lose his or her memory can be devastating. What's more devastating is that the disease can be difficult to treat since it is not usually until the illness has reached its advanced stages that individuals begin to realize they may have the degenerative brain disease.

However, researchers now believe that they may have found a way to detect the disease before individuals begin to experience symptoms, which could also mean that patients could be treated much sooner to possibly prevent the illness from progressing.

According to a doctor from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital and a group of researchers, brain scans may be able to detect if certain parts of the brain are thinner than normal, indicating the possible development of Alzheimer's.

The doctor and researchers have been studying brain scans of hundreds of patients who suffered from the disease in its various stages, coming to the conclusion that those who developed symptoms of Alzheimer's typically had shrinkage in certain parts of the brain well before experiencing any symptoms. Researchers also said that they noticed that nine areas of the brain seem to be affected the most in individuals who later displayed symptoms of Alzheimer's.

Researchers said that more studies need to be conducted in order to determine if early detection can help doctors to better treat the disease and to prevent the disease from progressing, but the results of this study certainly can provide hope to many Americans that this illness may one day be able to be managed better in order to prevent it from disabling their loved ones.

Source: TIME, "Study: Brain Scans Help Predict Alzheimer's Disease Early," Alice Park, Dec. 22, 2011