Alzheimer's prevention can vary between populations

Beskrivelse

A gene variation that protects against Alzheimer’s is missing in most Danes but not in other Nordic populations. Our ability to feel, think, and remember all depends on our brain cells’ ability to send and receive signals. As we get older, a type of plaque can appear around the cells, which prevents them from communicating properly, and this makes us mentally slower. The occurrence of plaque is especially common in Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. A new study shows that a special gene variant which protects against the plaque is much rarer in people from Denmark than in people from Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Finland.