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Now people can discover for themselves if they have Alzheimer’s…
Dr. Ramona Bates reports for EMaxHealth that the British Medical Journal has published research on a new Alzheimer’s test that’s called “TYM.” What’s more, the test which evaluates a person’s cognitive ability can be self-administered.

What does TYM stand for? It’s really quite simple: “Test Your Memory.” So far it has only been evaluated in one clinical scenario, so it is not considered a benchmark diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease. Yet numerous researchers hold a great deal of promise that is such early screening is used to detect the onset of the disease, the proper treatment can in turn begin at an earlier stage and the patient can enjoy a better quality of life for longer.

The TYM new Alzheimer’s test asked participants to perform 10 tasks (copy a sentence, determine word meaning, math calculations and memory recall). One sample might be as follows, writes Bates: “Name four animals with names that begin with the letter ‘S.’” Each question or task is valued at up to 50 points, so 500 total points are possible, with the higher scores being indicative of those likely to have less mental impairment.

One of the benefits noted by the British Medical Journal of the TYM new Alzheimer's test is that it takes less time to complete than other cognitive function exams. In the clinical trial, it spotted 93 percent of those who had Alzheimer’s, whereas the mini-mental exam only identified 52 percent of them accurately. If such a wide difference in performance continues to manifest in follow-up studies, it would seem to indicate that the new Alzheimer’s test is more sensitive than previous exam models.

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