--- title: Diagnosing Alzheimer's: New Test Finds Which Patients With Dementia Will Develop the Disease description: Dementia is a part of aging, but how do doctors separate normal brain decline from the first signs of Alzheimer’s? A new test that any physician can perform in their office may help canonical: https://time.com/3749130/alzheimers-test-dementia/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-18T20:00:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:39.388Z article:section: Health og:title: A Simple 3-Part Test May Predict Alzheimer’s og:description: Dementia is a part of aging, but how do doctors separate normal brain decline from the first signs of Alzheimer’s? A new test that any physician can perform in their office may help og:url: https://time.com/3749130/alzheimers-test-dementia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt281187f7fec443f8/69878422cd1bbad11d6f5bed/146104159.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3450 og:image:height: 1941 og:image:alt: 146104159 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Simple 3-Part Test May Predict Alzheimer’s twitter:description: Dementia is a part of aging, but how do doctors separate normal brain decline from the first signs of Alzheimer’s? A new test that any physician can perform in their office may help twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt281187f7fec443f8/69878422cd1bbad11d6f5bed/146104159.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Simple 3-Part Test May Predict Alzheimer’s > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Study: More People Die From Alzheimer’s Than We Thought [Watch (HLS stream): Study: More People Die From Alzheimer’s Than We Thought](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9fyDTyHY.m3u8) (1:22)  _Published 2014-03-06. An irreversible brain disorder that gradually destroys memory and eventually leads to death, Alzheimer’s disease was blamed for more than 83,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2010. But researchers believe the actual number could be six times larger._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 18, 2015 8:00 PM UTC  Floating brain on green background Floating brain on green background Chris Parsons—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 18, 2015 8:00 PM UTC Diseases like Alzheimer’s start years, even decades, before the first symptoms of memory loss shows up. And with rates of those diseases rising, experts say that more primary care physicians—not neurology experts—will have the task of identifying these patients early so they can take advantage of whatever early interventions might be available. “If we had a simple blood test, a cholesterol test for Alzheimer’s disease, that would help,” says Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic, “but we don’t.” But Petersen has a potential solution, and [according to a new paper released Wednesday in the journal _Neurology_](http://neurology.org/lookup/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000001437%20), his Alzheimer’s test has promise. Petersen and his team wanted to develop a test that any physician can administer to patients, without the need for any new technology or expensive equipment. Petersen believes that the test they came up with could become a useful tool for any physician, even those without special training in the brain. “What we are trying to do is give them some help so they can be as efficient as possible without ignoring these important cognitive issues,” he says. In the first phase of the test, his researchers simply collected information from 1,500 patients’ medical charts—their age, family history of Alzheimer’s, factors such as diabetes or smoking that have been linked to Alzheimer’s, and whether the patient had ever reported problems with memory. In the next phase they studied the results of the patient’s basic mental exam as well as of a psychiatric evaluation, because depression and anxiety have been connected to Alzheimer’s. And another factor that emerged as important in developing the disease—how quickly the participant could walk a short distance. “We were a little surprised,” says Petersen. “But what’s nice about it is that it’s a nice non-cognitive, motor factor so it’s looking at another aspect of brain function.” **MORE:** [This Alzheimer’s Breakthrough Could Be a Game Changer](http://time.com/3502215/this-alzheimers-breakthrough-could-be-a-game-changer/) Petersen suggests that every physician should get this information on their patients at age 65; that way, they can have a baseline against which to compare any changes as their patients age. Only if they show such changes — a slower walk, for example, or worsening signs of depression or memory issues — should they move on to the third phase of the test, which is a blood analysis. That would look for known genetic factors linked to Alzheimer’s, including the presence of certain versions of the ApoE gene. Currently, the only way to truly separate out those on the road to Alzheimer’s is to conduct expensive imaging tests of the brain, or to do a spinal tap, an invasive procedure that extracts spinal fluid for signs of the amyloid protein that builds up in the disease. “We have either expensive techniques or invasive techniques and it’s not practical to do them from a public health screening standpoint,” says Petersen. **MORE:** [New Test May Predict Alzheimer’s 10 Years Before Diagnosis](http://time.com/3590494/alzheimers-blood-test/) While his test is a possible solution to that problem, he acknowledges that the results need be repeated before it’s recommended on a wide scale to physicians across the country. But those who scored higher on the test of risk factors had a seven-fold higher chance of developing mild cognitive impairment than those with lower scores. For now, even if doctors identify patients around age 65 who might be at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment, there isn’t much they can do to interrupt the process. But they can direct them toward clinical trials of promising new drugs to address Alzheimer’s dementia, which may slow the cognitive decline considerably. ## Transcript An irreversible brain disorder that gradually destroys memory and eventually leads to death. Alzheimer's disease was blamed for more than 83, 000 deaths in the US in 2010. But according to researchers at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago, the actual number could be six times larger. The study estimates more than 500, 000 people died from the disease last year. That would put it behind just heart disease and cancer as the third leading cause of death in the US. Cause of death figures are calculated using the cause listed on death certificates. The lead author of the study told CNN, death certificates are well known to under report Alzheimer's and many people don't even realize it's a deadly disease. The more immediate causes of death, such as pneumonia or heart attack, are usually listed, and the underlying causes of death are usually left off. There are an estimated 5 million patients living with the disease in the US. Doctors say that number could triple by 2050, if there are no medical breakthroughs. Actor Seth Rogen spoke on Capital Hill last week about the need for more research funding. It needs to be yelled and screamed to the point that it finally gets the attention and the funding that it deserves and needs. Alzheimer's Association advisory groups estimated it would take $ 20 billion over the next ten years to make a significant difference in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The National Institutes of Health spent $ 503 million in Alzheimer's research in 2012. 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