More on the test for Alzheimer's Disease

Would you want to know?

Would you want to know if, a decade from now, your brain will begin to deteriorate?Even if you can't do much to stop it?

The questions sound like a science-fiction brainteaser. But they became real with the announcement this week that researchers may be able to predict Alzheimer's disease nearly a decade before symptoms appear. Experts say predicting illness raises ethical questions for doctors and societal questions about insurance, workplace discrimination and privacy.

Jeanie Colp, a Phoenix writer who has authored several books, doesn't have to think in the abstract. She received her Alzheimer's diagnosis three months ago. Colp, 69, said she is glad she was blissfully unaware of the coming storm. "I was writing, working, playing," she said. "I was having a great time."

About 4.5 million people in the United States have Alzheimer's, and in the next 45 years, as the population ages, that number is expected to rise to 14 million. Researchers announced this week that a brain scan that shows decreased activity in the hippocampus seems to predict that 10 years later the patient will develop Alzheimer's. It is hoped the research will lead to interventions to slow or stop the disease.

The study will have to be replicated, and it could be years before the test would be available to the public.

Articulate and funny, Colp jokes about forgetting things like her PIN number but has few visible signs of the disease. She has moved into a smaller apartment, given up her car for fear she would hit someone or forget how to get home, and has been afraid to go back to her writing.

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