Some research has pointed out that 22% of all adults above age 40 might be prone to some stage of Alzheimer’s. Researchers are therefore focused on finding new ways to recognize the disease early on since this percentage is expected to increase in the upcoming years.
Although there are no particular medications that might slow down the progression of the disease early on, some research found that monitoring a person’s daily activity pattern through a wrist-worn device may show early signs of Alzheimer’s more accurately.
It is common knowledge that people’s daily activities are often the same. For instance, some people might go on morning walks, whereas some might be more active during the night. Researchers have had evidence in the past that higher active levels are linked to better cardiovascular health, better cognition, and improved mental health in older adults.
A study conducted by the journal Sleep has analyzed data produced by a wristwatch-like device known as the Actigraph. This device was worn by 82 healthy older adults who were a part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The technology accelerometer is commonly used in smartwatches today and can track the correct data.
Out of 82 participants, 76 of them had detectable protein beta-amyloid in the brain (amyloid plaques are one of the patent peptides that confirm Alzeimers disease). When researchers were collecting data from the Actigraph, they reported that there was a significant difference between 25 ‘amyloid positive’ and 57 ‘amyloid negative’.
It was reported that the amyloid-positive group has higher activity levels during the early afternoon, possibly from 1.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. It was also seen that among cognitively normal people, those with detectable beta-amyloid had different patterns of activity at particular times of day from those without it.
The main question still remains at the end of this research: whether this device will be able to determine the early onset of Alzheimer’s, and if so, is there a cure for it? Now, researchers say that there are a lot of studies that need to be conducted to check whether early Alzheimers are treatable or not.
If such studies are successful, wearable devices will be able to identify people with an elevated risk of severe neurological disease.
Doctors at numerous hospitals still think that wearable devices need a lot of training to be the only test that can detect a disease. These devices are technology at the end of the day, and technology, as seen, is prone to making mistakes.
Any person relying on a device to detect any form of device should be careful because it can cause unnecessary stress and a burden to diagnose some disease that might not have been true in the first place. This falsification makes the medical system crowded and takes away time from truly impaired individuals who need treatment and diagnosis.
Journal Link – https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsae037/7611943
