Early-onset Alzheimer is a rare form of the disease but its brain lesions are identical to those in the late-onset form so the hope is that a treatment for one could carry over to the other.  Dr. Kenneth Kosik said: "People there are getting the disease generation after generation because they are getting a mutation in one of their genes. It gives us a very big clue in being able to predict who's going to get it."  While it's still too soon to tell, Kosik's team believes the Colombian families could help unlock the mysteries of Alzheimer's, ultimately leading to treatments or preventions.  In the U.S. Julie Noonan Lawson, knows all too well about Early-onset Alzheimer's. Her family carries an Early-onset Alzheimer's gene mutation. Her mother developed the disease in her early 30's.  "So I kind of grew up with Alzheimer's," she said. "And it felt like we had a reprieve for many years, and then it showed up again in my sister Fran. I was like, 'It's back, I see it.' So that was kind of the reintroduction of it, and the realization that it's going to encompass our lives."  When a family carries one of these rare genetic mutations, the children of those who develop Alzheimer's have a 50 percent chance of getting it too. In the meantime, they live with uncertainty and fear.  "If it reappeared in my sister, Fran, could it reappear in me?" Noonan Lawson wondered. "Could it reappear in others?"  Ultimately, three of Noonan Lawson's siblings -- Fran, Maureen and Butch -- developed the disease. And now Kate Preskenis, Maureen's daughter, is worried too.  "When they told us about the gene status, I totally fell silent," Preskenis said. "I quit talking about my family history. I quit talking about Alzheimer's. If people would ask me how mom had died, I would casually say, 'Oh, mom had Alzheimer's.' But I wouldn't say, 'Oh, my grandmother, her twin sister, my mom, my aunt and my uncle.'
It's a cruel disease that strips away a person's identity until they can no longer remember their loved ones or feed themselves. But normally, Alzheimer's does not attack until old age.For some,