What is the youngest a person can be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?
Curious in Canada
Dear Curious,
The youngest known diagnosis of Alzheimer’s was age 28. However it is very rare to develop the disease this young. It is estimated that only about 5% of the approximately 5 million Alzheimer’s disease cases were diagnosed under age 65 (classified as early-onset). The physician Alois Alzheimer was credited with identifying the disease first, and that case was a woman who was 51 years old. The youngest I have ever known personally was age 37 when I met him, though he had been diagnosed a few years earlier. I personally have worked with many people in their 50’s and 60’s with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia – and remember, dementia isn’t always Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes it’s caused by Huntington’s, Frontotemporal Lobe damage, or Lewy Body Disease, which are all often mistaken as Alzheimer’s, though doctors are now pretty adept at identifying the differences and not just lumping them into the Alzheimer’s category.
None of that information is all that important from my perspective, because I like to focus on helping caregivers enjoy the time they have with their loved ones who have the disease. We can’t spend our lives worrying about what might happen, but we do have the choice to respond positively when something like this does happen. However, it is quite important to physicians, as there are differing medications that can make a significant impact in a person’s medical treatment. What is very important is to know that a person with Alzheimer’s is still a person, and you can still have a relationship with them regardless of their age or disability. In addition, it is very important as a concerned party that you take care of yourself – and one of the best ways to do that is to get involved in a caregiver support group.