As someone with a family member taking one of the newest drugs, I can attest that it does seem to meaningfully slow progression — from rapid decline nearly to a halt in my loved one’s case.

The risk of dangerous side effects seems to be much higher for those with APOE4 — before approving the treatment they required among other things a genetic test ruling that out. (There are several other genetic variants that predispose to Alzheimer’s, fwiw.) We were lucky and saw none of the concerning side effects.

Are we “there” yet? Where’s there?

The prognosis after this treatment is a massive improvement over what it would have been at this stage of progression if it had been reached even 5 years ago.

If you can detect the disease even earlier and halt progress at a point where you retain more cognitive function, that’s a huge win — and gives you time to wait it out a bit longer in hope that we’re able to develop a treatment that doesn’t just pause but can reverse progression.

Yeah, I doubt we’re ready yet to administer these drugs to people who are asymptomatic (not to mention how pricey they currently are). But for someone who likely has the genes for it, just _knowing_ would in some ways be a relief.