Plaque Build-Up in Your Brain May Be More Harmful Than Having Alzheimer’s Gene

A new study shows that having a high amount of beta amyloid or “plaques” in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease may cause steeper memory decline in mentally healthy older people than does having the APOE ɛ4 allele, also associated with the disease. The study is published in the October 16, 2012, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“Our results show that plaques may be a more important factor in determining which people are at greater risk for cognitive impairment or other memory diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease,” said study author Yen Ying Lim, MPsych, with the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. “Unfortunately, testing for the APOE genotype is easier and much less costly than conducting amyloid imaging.”

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