Is Alzheimer's genetic?

Dr John Rogers, Cambridge University - Well yes, there is some pathology around blood vessels in Alzheimer's disease. The main pathology in the brain is that there are abnormal proteins produced and deposited throughout the brain, but one of those is particularly deposited around blood vessels. We don't yet know whether that really makes significant contribution to the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Regarding the genetic control of it, yes, there is a gene which has significant influence on the incidence of Alzheimer's. it's called ApoE and people who have a particular version of this, an allele called ApoE4 are several times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than people with other versions of the gene. However, I have to say, at present, it doesn't seem worth testing for this because there's nothing we can do about it, but it is one more reason why we should generally keep a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle because the main thing that ApoE does is to transport cholesterol into the brain. And there are some evidence that high cholesterol made from Alzheimer's disease as well as other ills that they affect us in our older years. There are many projects trying to use this kind of research to develop cures or prevention for Alzheimer's disease and some of these are in clinical trials, but nothing has been very successful as yet. So at the present, the best advice one can give is to keep intellectually active because it's known that people who are more intellectually active are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and to keep healthy lifestyles, keep physically active, and to try and keep one's cholesterol low.