
Brain imaging study reveals signs of Parkinson’s decades before symptoms appear - melling
https://newatlas.com/parkinsons-disease-brain-imaging-serotonin-diagnose/60270/
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SpeakMouthWords
The analogy I've heard for early detection of neurodegeneration is that it
turns the condition from terminal to chronic. This is similar to how late
detection of HIV usually means AIDS and death, now it means a manageable
condition, but life.

Interestingly, there are a companies working on this from different angles.
Here's one doing it with voice analysis:
[https://auralanalytics.com/](https://auralanalytics.com/)

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bbmario
How do I get one of these? Do I go to my doctor and tell him: Hey, grandfather
had Parkinson’s so I want to double-check myself?

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dlanouette
You would go to a neurologist. Preferably one that specializes in Parkinson's
disease.

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pbhjpbhj
I'm not sure I'd want to know, but I'm falling on the side of not.

I've a family member with [brain] health issues and the idea that I'm going to
end up that way is absolutely consuming me at the moment. If there's treatment
then that's great; without treatment then I think you're better not knowing.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

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xattt
Would the aspect of knowing guide you to get your affairs in order and be able
to enjoy life to the fullest?

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pbhjpbhj
I think that works in the last few years, but Parkinsons is quite slowly
degenerative I feel, so sufferers experience obvious symptoms a long time
before it kills them(?). Knowing for a decade in advance ... that's too soon
to "get your affairs in order" and I can't see it would affect your ideology
more than realising you'll die at some point in the future any way ...?

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bluGill
There are other ways to get your affairs in order. If I knew I was going to
die at 65 I would have an extra 25k/year to spend on having fun now (401k+IRA
savings). My family history suggests I will live until 75-85, so I'm saving
that money to enjoy retirement, but if that won't happen.

Of course advances in medical science happen all the time. If I know that in
30 years I'll die of X, putting $50/month into research on a cure for X can
make a real difference. (My contribution alone of course means nothing, but
with all the other people who like me know X will get them doing their
$5-$100/month - depending on what they can afford)

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000dry
It is also possible to smell Parkinson's before its onset:
[http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2019/03/21/parkinsons...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2019/03/21/parkinsons-
disease-super-smeller-joy-milne/#.XRIZsOtKjOQ)

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npongratz
Indeed, as mentioned in the article:

"A large array of promising diagnostic methods have been floated in recent
years, from blood and eye tests, to a remarkable recent study suggesting a
smell secreted by the skin could signal the presence of the disease."

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joezydeco
My wife and I have been shopping for long-term care insurance. We're not in
the zone where it's completely necessary yet, but we wanted to be in a policy
before our health starts to degrade. Even the agents we've talked to so far
think we're early, but not _too_ early.

But I fear that tests like this will make LTC insurance very hard or even
impossible to get for some people. Perhaps that's fair, if the test can
confirm with 100% accuracy that you'll be a victim of a degenerative disease.

But what if it's not 100% accurate?

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asdkhadsj
And thus, the problem with for profit insurance. I know nothing of economics
_(so I 'm not making claims how insurance should be)_, but it's a shame that
we have to fear insurers _knowing_ that we'll be sick and rejecting our
quality of life.

As a "modern" civilization I just don't think you should be concerned with
for-profit entities deciding you'll cost too much and denying your basic
quality of life.

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luxuryballs
Even if it’s not for profit and it’s just a sharing pool your share would need
to be way higher if we knew that you would be taking a big chunk of everyone’s
contributions no?

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jnty
No - the whole point of pooling would surely be that you don't pay for your
own misfortune (or profit from good fortune.)

It really just becomes a poorly implemented version of general taxation
though. Funding health and social care from taxation is of course not a new
idea...

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luxuryballs
Yeah but if you don’t balance it against the risk factors you blow out your
pool... similar to why taxation wouldn’t be sustainable, you’d end up with a
significant portion of the population eating the pool without contributing,
and a very small minority being forced to cover them, effectively farming
“consumer humans” and thus an ever growing tax rate.

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jnty
Does the evidence from countries with tax-funded healthcare and social care
bear this out? Are you assuming that everyone will eventually have a Japan-
style ageing population timebomb?

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xvilka
I wonder what is the minimum resolution required, it really matters how
widespread those checks can be right now, after they are adopted by the
doctors.

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lostlogin
Does it? You can manage symptoms but there isn’t much more than that available
I don’t think?

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Amygaz
Managing symptoms, like you call it, also happens to slow down the
progression. And right now it’s a good option to consider. The neurological
disorders are very hot and tends topics in Academia and Pharma, the pace of
the discovery and trials is “mind blowing”, compared with a decade ago.

Edit: typos

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i4t
This is important, because (future) treatments will be most effective before
the brain has been damaged beyond repair.

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namenotrequired
Noob question, how likely is this to generalize to cases of Parkinson’s not
caused by this rare mutation?

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knbknb
In humans (this time, not in mice )

