A new study on fraternal and identical twins indicates that inheritance plays a large role in determining whether or not a person will develop Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the study showed that it played a factor in nearly 80 percent of the cases. The study was published in the 'Archives of General Psychiatry.'
The report, conducted by researchers at the University of Southern California, examined 392 pairs of Swedish twins over the age of 65. Both fraternal and identical twins were studied as part of the research and one of the twins had Alzheimer's when the study commenced. That group was compared to another similar group of twins who did not suffer from Alzheimer's.
Margaret Getz, the lead author of the study, said that the result 'confirms the higher estimates that have been suggested previously. The important thing is that no one has had this large a sample before.' However, she added that 'this doesn't mean that environment is not important. Environment may be relevant not only for whether but also for when one gets the disease.'
The heritability of Alzheimer's was found to be 79 percent.
While your genes may determine your susceptibility to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, this does not mean a person is helpless to prevent the onset of the disease. Additional research is expected in this area.
