UpbeatA simple blood test is giving families a clearer window on Alzheimer's
Susan Dancer, 60, of Bay City, Texas, grew up watching Alzheimer's take her mother and grandmother, and this year she wanted answers of her own. A new kind of blood test offered one: it measures a protein called p-tau217 that rises when the plaques linked to Alzheimer's build up in the brain. Dancer joined a clinical trial to take it, hoping for a number below 0.18 — hers came back at 0.10. It is not a guarantee about her future, she says, but it was deeply reassuring, and it lets her plan her own life on her own terms. The approach was developed by scientists including Dr. David Holtzman at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The upbeat factora blood draw, not a brain scan, is starting to give people like Susan answers early enough to plan, prepare and breathe easier.
SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation
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