According to a group of Chinese researchers, they have found the world’s youngest Alzheimer’s sufferer. a 19-year-old Beijing resident has been identified as having a neurodegenerative condition that is often found in the elderly.
The research findings were released on January 31 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease by the expert committee, which was chaired by Jia Jianping of the Innovation Center for Neurological Diseases, Xuanwu Hospital associated with Capital Medical University.
At age 17, the young man started to have trouble focusing, and the following year, he started to experience short-term memory loss, making it impossible for him to recall where he had put his stuff or what had happened the day before. Also, he has had trouble reading and delayed reactions. His memory continued to slowly deteriorate, and he had trouble remembering even eating. He had to quit school as a result.
According to Jia’s team, the patient has no family history of AD and no other medical conditions, such as genetic issues, infections, or other diseases, that could be causing memory loss. The researchers emphasized in a statement that their findings refute the widely accepted notion that Alzheimer’s disease mainly affects the elderly. They said, “The results suggested paying attention to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.” One of the trickiest scientific problems in the future would be figuring out the riddles of young people with Alzheimer’s disease.
With approximately 5–10% of all known cases, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, which affects adults under the age of 65, is rare. The majority of people under 30 have harmful genetic abnormalities (PS1, PS2, APP). The previous youngest Alzheimer’s patient had this genetic mutation when she was 21 years old. The 19-year-old Chinese person did not, however, possess any of the genetic abnormalities that have been previously associated to dementia. This makes the case special because it is an early stage of Alzheimer’s that has never been observed previously.
