Military Members at a Greater Risk for Alzheimer's Disease

During the last 10 years, Alzheimer cases in military members have doubled.

It is not a secret that members of the military face many psychological problems because of the stress they face in operations against organized crime, especially during wars. For many of them it is just a traumatic event they cannot overcome that easily.

The main effects of living in a situation of armed confrontation are: neurotic disorders, disorders related to stress, somatomorphic alterations (general discomfort felt even while not suffering from any illness) and mood disorders as well. Data gathered by statistic experts reveal that soldiers also suffer from behavioral disorders due to the use of psychoactive substances (cocaine, crack, ecstasy, LSD, marijuana and tobacco, substances able to inhibit pain, modify the state mood or altering perceptions), schizophrenia, delusions, mental retardation and paranoid personality disorder. 

Regardless of the causes, the truth is that military people have to face a harsh reality beyond the battlefield. A battle inside their heads. From 2004 to 2014 cases of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have doubled and it is also important to mention that other types of dementia have also become pretty common among war veterans in later stages of their lives.

Behind the figures

Although many military members have to deal with visible injuries, some of them even having lost parts of their bodies, it is still more common seeing ex-military members seeing their mental health affected. Internal damage as it can be called usually represents the biggest challenge for people who are part of the military.

A program called the Wounded Warrior Project gives them the name of “invisible wounds”. Alex Balbir, an individual who is part of the project says that studies in the future will keep on understanding and spotting the importance of treating Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia in war heroes and military people in general.

Another group called “Veterans Against Alzheimer’s” ran a study evaluating more than 750,000 retirees from the military across the U.S who had been diagnosed to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia.

Although said study focusses mostly on older war veterans, it is looking for the impact of risk factors in veterans who have fewer years retired. The organization is also offering assistance to veterans dealing with mental health issues. Among the methods used by this organization, they always highlight it is important to start forums where veterans can debate with each other since they usually feel more comfortable around other people who have been through similar trouble and traumatic experiences.

Also, studies have found that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) play a significant part in the developing of Alzheimer’s disease.

Easier to counter than before

Chronic diseases are constantly being submitted to evaluation and people are always looking for better ways to treat them. It is expected that in some years people will be able to consume a substance that is capable of stopping the neurodegenerative process triggered by the apparition of “bad” proteins that destroy neurons. Meanwhile, methods to diagnose the condition are under development or being tested in order to determine their level of efficiency.

Currently, Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed under clinical criteria. In other words, in order to make a clear diagnosis of this neurodegenerative disease the basis is the symptoms that a patient presents. So far, no current test has been shown as able to diagnose the disease in a specific way, not even imaging tests such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.

However, among the most advanced studies, a great example is the one held by theFaculty of Medicine at the University of Washington in St. Louis, and published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, which has been able to develop a blood test capable of detecting biomarkers of circulating Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, to find the beta amyloid protein, which is thought to accumulate in the brain and produce the disease by destroying neurons. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that this idea still has some detractors since some physicians disagree with that point of view, blaming another substance, the tau protein.

Blood testing for Alzheimer's Disease

According to the researchers responsible for this work, measuring the amount of amyloid beta protein in the blood would help identify people at risk for Alzheimer's disease years in advance, since the disease begins to develop decades before its symptoms occur.

Although memory loss is one of the most characteristic symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease, there are others such as symptoms of depression in old age, anxiety or behavior changes that may be associated with the disease.

Currently there are two ways to detect beta amyloid protein in the brain of an individual: through the use of PET, a very expensive neuroimaging test and not very little available in hospitals, or lumbar puncturing, an invasive method and verylikely to lead to complications. In fact, none of these methods are used in routine clinical practice.

The future of military members suffering from Alzheimer’s

Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia represent an expense that currently exceeds oncological and cerebrovascular pathology together. Sadly, it not only within military members and war veterans’ percentages of people suffering from these conditions have increased. There is also an exponential increase in the number of people suffering from dementia that have nothing to do with the military. For this reason, this type of condition is currently the main challenge our social health systems are facing.

Until recently physicians could only diagnose Alzheimer's when the patient lost his autonomy for the activities of daily life. Things have changed and they are currently able to identify those individuals who are at high risk, or who are in very early stages of the disease while the patient still retains its full autonomy. These types of evaluation will allow physicians in the future to apply therapies very early or even in asymptomatic individuals who already present the pathological changes of Alzheimer's in their brain.

Everything seems to point to a beneficial direction, maybe even being able to develop tests that can reliably estimate the individual's risk of developing Alzheimer's in the future.