The Suit Magazine

Research from the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis indicates that falls in older adults could be an indication of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Participants in their study with early Alzheimer’s were twice as likely to experience a fall as those without.

The study lasted eight months and followed 125 cognitively healthy older adults both with and without preclinical Alzheimer’s. Each participant kept a journal to document each fall (defined as an “unintentional movement to the floor”) throughout the study, as well as submitted to PET scans to detect beta-amyloid plaques that signify Alzheimer’s development in the brain. Their findings were presented Sunday at the 2011 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Paris.

According to Maria Carrillo, senior director of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association, biological changes in the brain indicative of the disease can present themselves a decade or more before physical symptoms show. Therefore, falls could indicate a need for further neural diagnostic evaluation.

“I think it would be prudent to have a careful examination by someone who’s comfortable doing a complete psychological exam—either a neurologist, psychiatrist, physician, or internist—just to see if you’ve got other cognitive problems,” Dr. Sam Gandy, a professor of psychology and neurology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, told CNN.

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