Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease

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I read a couple of articles today that in my mind were related.

The first article discussed using data mining to detect early signs of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. The article was titled Identifying Dementia by Our Financial Behavior by Charles Dinerstein, MD. The following is an excerpt:

Big Data can find patterns in our behavior that may be too subtle or occur over too long a period for us to notice. Those patterns are used every day to encourage more consumption, but it seems they might also help us identify dementia before it comes to our family's or medical attention.

Perhaps you remember the apocryphal story of how Target targets expectant mothers by merely identifying their purchases. For instance, expectant motions start to load up on unscented lotions during their second trimester. Put enough clues together, and an individual’s behavior can reveal, in this case, a pregnancy. For many of us, and I include myself, this is a very scary thought. Big Data can be used to target you, especially in making purchases. I already consume enough without Big Data’s nudge. But what if, our behavior can identify a medical problem before it comes to medical attention. A new paper looks at a way to identify dementia from of all things, our financial behavior.

Dementia has many forms, although we often, incorrectly, lump them together into Alzheimer’s disease. There is no simple blood test or imaging that says dementia; it requires an examination to identify impaired cognition. One man’s forgetfulness can be another’s impairment. I can walk into a room and have forgotten why I am there; I chalk that up to forgetfulness. But should I walk into a room and not recognize where I am, that is cognitive impairment. And for many of us, the changes are so subtle and develop so slowly that we find ways to compensate, masking over the cognitive loss. When does keeping a to-do list go from a life hack to a requirement to function? As a result, there is often a two-year or greater period when early dementia goes unrecognized and not diagnosed.

Prior studies have shown that individuals with mild cognitive impairment had difficulty with daily financial activity, balancing a checkbook, making an investment decision. Of course, those same impairments make you more susceptible to financial elder abuse, if not outright fraud.

“…individuals who are mildly impaired prior to AD are, conceptually, the “perfect victim,” as they have control of their assets but have impairments that may not be recognized and have broad exposure to the community.”

The goal [of the study] was to look at the economic effects of early unrecognized dementia by looking back at an individual’s financial activity from the time of medical diagnosis. The researchers made use of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) – a longitudinal study involving interviews every two years about “their health work and retirement, finances, and family characteristics.” The outcomes of interest were liquid assets and total non-housing wealth.

[The results of the study:] “We find robust evidence that early-stage AD places households at significant risk for large adverse changes in liquid assets. Regardless of who in the household is afflicted, early-stage AD reduces increases the probability of a large (90th percentile value-defined) adverse change in liquid assets by 3.3 percentage points. We find some, but more limited, evidence that early-stage AD reduces net wealth.”

The second article looked at fraud and how the elderly were more prong to be affected. Here is a link to the article: Getting threats your Social Security number will be suspended? It's a scam, IRS says The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning individuals about a current scam that is underway.

In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission said it received 3 million consumer complaints – including more than 1.4 million fraud reports. Overall, Americans reported losing $1.48 billion – an increase of nearly 40 percent when compared with 2017.

Amounts reported stolen tended to vary by age: When people age 70 and over lost money, the median value was $751, compared with a median of $400 for people in their 20s. The median was even higher for those at least 80 years old – a whopping $1,700.

So from my perception the first article discussed a method of detecting Alzheimers using financial data mining and the second article gave an example of how the elderly (the population with greater frequency of Alzheimers) showed poorer judgement in financial behavior.

some of us more unfortunate types lose the ability to reality-test. this is the beginning of the end.

I came across an article that shows an example of an elderly individual becoming a fraud victim.

A 90-year-old North Dakota woman who was robbed of her life savings by a Jamaican lottery scam says she has been paid back only $287 of the $400,000 she's owed.

Edna Schmeets of Harvey, a small central North Dakota town about 77 miles (124 kilometers) northeast of Bismarck, was the victim whose case launched what became the first large-scale Jamaican lottery scam case prosecuted in the U.S. All 31 defendants have been prosecuted, including 14 Jamaican nationals who were extradited from that country. Authorities identified victims of the scam in 31 states, with more than 100 mostly elderly American bilked out of more than $6 million.

Scammers would call victims and tell them they had won money in a lottery but that they needed to pay advance fees to collect it. The scammers would then keep the victims' money without paying out anything. The case was prosecuted in North Dakota because that is where the investigation began into Schmeets being scammed.

In 2011, shortly after her husband died, Schmeets began sending large checks, provided her credit card number, borrowed money from her sister and cashed out life insurance policies after she was told by a scammer that she had won $19 million in a lottery.

Source: Elderly American hit by Jamaican lottery scam fights to get $400,000 back

Investment decisions take a lot of skill and energy to make

Just because someone is bad at investment decisions does not indicate dementia


Last week my doctor talked to me about mild cognitive decline

Asked, how do you know if your brain is working

She arranged a neuropsychological evaluation next Friday

Eagerly waiting s**t



Dr Butler told me that just because your brain won't do what you want it to do (rocket science) does not prove structural damage, intellectually challenged, learning difference