Doctors all over the world state that some diseases that were previously characteristic of the elderly are “getting younger” before our eyes. A striking example was recorded in China, where neurologists diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease in a 19-year-old boy, and its first symptoms – memory loss – began to appear two years earlier.
The examination showed a marked decrease in the region of the brain responsible for memory – the hippocampus, and markers in the cerebrospinal fluid confirmed the development of dementia.According to doctors, Alzheimer’s disease in people under 30 years of age, apparently, occurs due to a pathological gene mutation – that is, it is inherited. However, doctors did not find anything of the kind in the young man, which is also confirmed by his family, where no one has ever suffered from this disease. Unfortunately, the disease progresses, the young man quickly loses his memory, because of which he could not even finish high school.
This case, according to the researchers, “changes understanding of the typical age of onset of Alzheimer’s disease.” The results of the study show that AD can develop in several directions with different consequences. We have to admit that a once senile disease that has become much younger can become one of the most difficult problems of the near future.
