According to a study conducted by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine, children whose parents suffer from Alzheimer's disease can start to develop memory problems in their 50s, and sometimes earlier, reports the Boston Globe.
The study compared people who carried APOE-e4, a gene "strongly linked to Alzheimer's." Those who had parents that suffered from the disease performed worse on memory tests; subjects whose parents did not suffer from Alzheimer's performed better by an equivalence of "approximately 15 years of brain aging."
Dr. Sudha Seshadri, a senior author of the study and an associate professor of neurology at Boston University, said the study was "like...comparing two groups, 55-year-olds to 70-year-olds."
The study was comprised of 715 participants with an age range of 37 to 80.
To learn more:
- here's the Boston Globe story