If there is a history of Alzheimer’s in your family, you may feel as if the disease is looming in your future. After all, your genes have been a part of you since you first came into existence. Genes feel like fate—something that can’t be changed.
It isn’t so. The first thing to understand is that most Alzheimer’s genes don’t, by themselves, determine whether a person who has them will actually get Alzheimer’s. Why is this, and how can we put that knowledge to use to reduce our own chances of developing the disease?