Resistance to Dementia, Alzheimer’s May Run in Family
A resistance to dementia may be a family legacy, according to new research.
“In very elderly people with good cognition, higher levels of C-reactive protein, which is related to inflammation, are associated with better memory,” said study author Jeremy M. Silverman, Ph.D., with Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
“Our results found that the higher the level of this protein in the study participant, the lower the risk for dementia in their parents and siblings.”
Counselors have long cautioned about the downsides of genetic testing for Alzheimer’s disease.
A woman grips her car’s steering wheel and silently lets out a scream as her frail father, on oxygen, coughs beside her and her kids play around in the back seat. 
There is a certain degree of helplessness that a person can feel when reading about dementia. After all, there is no cure. There is no precise understanding of the cause. There is not even a way to delay the disease. From time to time, there are fun articles that do assuage our fears about dementia, like “Alcohol Intake in the Elderly Affects Risk of Cognitive Decline and Dementia” that allow us to think, Oh, drinking wine helps stave off dementia! But even those are to be taken with a grain of salt.
Alzheimer’s disease is an illness that slowly develops overtime usually affecting those people over 65 years old. It’s the most common form of dementia and is not a normal part of aging. I’ve had the opportunity of being around someone with Alzheimer’s disease and the problems with memory, thinking and behavior are very noticeable. My grandmother was unfortunately someone who was inflicted by it, and every time I saw her it felt like she was just meeting me for the first time; she would ask me the exact same questions such as “Are you married?” and “What grade are you in?” As I grew older I began to understand a bit more about her problem and it saddened me to know that this disease could be so easily avoided.