Keith Vossel, MD: 'Knowledge is power'; Healthy Iowa woman, 27, told she has a 95% chance of developing dementia stands by her decision to get genetically tested... but would YOU really want to know?

"A healthy 27-year-old Iowa woman had her world turned upside down after being told she will almost certainly develop a form of dementia that strikes early.

Alyssa Nash discovered that she possesses a gene mutation that will almost certainly sentence her to the same fate as he father, who ‘changed completely into someone else’ in his 30s seven years before being diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).

The Iowa server was quick to undergo a battery of relatively new and highly specific blood tests to determine her genetic risk, as she had a 50 percent chance of carrying the gene and therefore a considerable 10 to 15 percent chance of being diagnosed.

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Dr Keith Vossel, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told DailyMail.com: ‘Normally when people develop frontal temporal dementia, they develop difficulties with language or some changes in personality. 

'And oftentimes, they have less insight into their problems than patients with Alzheimer's disease do.’

The condition usually takes a major toll on the victim's family, not just the victim, Dr Vossel said. 

'They're usually young, oftentimes younger than 60 and... because there's lack of insight [as well as] personality changes, there can be higher burden on family and caregivers than the experience of the patient in terms of the impact of the disease.'"

Read more at DailyMail.