Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., D.A.C.B.N., M.S.

Simple memory test called verbal recall has a 70% accuracy and could predict up to a ten years which seniors were likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Mary Tierney, director of geriatric research at Toronto’s Sunnybrook and Women’s College Health Sciences Center and lead researcher of the study, 1000 Canadians between the ages of 60 to 75 over a 10 year period were asked to memorize a list of 15 words and repeat back as many as possible after approximately one minute.

Inability to do so was found to be closely linked to later incidence of the brain-destroying disease.

Acceptable recall for those over 75 might be in the range of eight or nine words.

Many of those who scored poorly — remembering as few as four words — is a RED FLAG indicating a sign of problem to come and a high probability of developing Alzheimer’s 10 years later.

Researchers had even greater accuracy in predicting who would get the disease five years before the onset of symptoms, using delayed verbal recall plus two other tests: One in which a respondent is asked to name as many animals as possible and a general information test.

With all three tests, more than 80% of participants who had low scores developed Alzheimer’s symptoms within five years.

Reference:
Tierney MC, Yao C, Kiss A, McDowell I. Neuropsychological tests accurately predict incident Alzheimer disease after 5 and 10 years. Neurology. 2005 Jun 14;64(11):1853-9.

Klages JD, Fisk JD, Rockwood K. APOE genotype, memory test performance, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2003;15(1):1-5.

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