 |
 |
The older the father the greater the Alzheimer's risk, study says LONDON (September 16, 1998 1:43 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A fa= ther who waits to have children may be increasing their chance of developing Alzheimer's disease, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday. Researchers in Germany suspect that DNA damage that builds up with age can= be passed on from older fathers to their children which could raise their cha= nces of developing the progressive degenerative brain disorder. "There is an accumulation of environmental factors which somehow alter the genome of the father," Lars Bertram, of the Technical University of Munich= , told the magazine. He and his colleagues studied 206 people with Alzheimer's disease and discovered that patients who were least likely to have an inherited risk h= ad fathers who were older than those of the higher genetic risk group or heal= thy people. Fathers of sufferers in the low genetic-probability group had been 35 to 3= 7 years old when their child was born, while fathers in the high genetic ris= k group were four to six years younger when they became a parent. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting about 1= 0 million people worldwide. It causes loss of memory, changes in personality= and affects a person's ability to think. Drugs can slow the progression of the disease but there is no cure. The disease is not completely understood but researchers suspect a buildup= of plaque in the brains of sufferers causes problems in the brain's communica= tion system. =1A Copyright =A9 1998 Nando.net Copyright =A9 1998 Reuters News Service janet paterson - 51/10 - almonte/ontario/canada http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/ [log in to unmask]