More evidence that Alzheimer's disease may be inherited from your mother

A new study contribute to growing evidence that if one of your parents has Alzheimer's disease, the chances of inheriting it from your mother are higher than from your father.

"It is estimated that people who have first-degree relatives with Alzheimer's disease are four to 10 times more likely to develop the disease themselves compared to people with no family history," said study author Robyn Honea, DPhil, of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City.

The researchers found that people with a mother who had Alzheimer's disease had twice as much gray matter shrinkage as the groups who had a father or no parent with Alzheimer's disease. In addition, those who had a mother with Alzheimer's disease had about one and a half times more whole brain shrinkage per year compared to those who had a father with the disease.

Source:

http://www.aan.com/press/index.cfm?fuseaction=release.view&release=917