Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, mainly affects people over 65 years old. However, a mother of two, who is just only in her thirties, has been diagnosed with the disease and is now bedbound in a care home.
Her Father Also Had Alzheimer's
Carla Bramall was just 30 years old when she first began showing dementia symptoms. She was diagnosed with the condition after she crashed her car while she was driving her daughter. According to Mirror, the decline in her health is rapid, and at 39, she now unable to recognize her family. She cannot even speak or move her head.
Bramall's case is a rare form of Alzheimer's, Express reported. She was formally diagnosed with the disease when she was 36. Her mother, Rita Pepper, said she noticed the symptoms immediately because her husband, Barry, had died in 1993 from early-onset Alzheimer's. The family is from Rushden, Northants in England.
Bramall's Case Is Rare, Which Accounts For Less Than One Percent In Alzheimer's Cases
Pepper prepared herself for the possibility that her daughter may develop the condition and that it was an inherited form of Alzheimer's disease. "Watching my own child go through this is indescribably painful, it breaks my heart," Pepper said.
The rare condition, which accounts for less than one percent of Alzheimer's cases, is a mutation in the PSEN1 gene. This affects only about 450 families in the world, and can cause symptoms to appear as early as 30 years of age.
Pepper said that people don't believe her when she tells them that her daughter has Alzheimer's. "We need people to see that this is happening to young people too. I just hope that one day treatments can be readily given to people in the same position as my daughter," she said.
There is currently no cure for Alzheimer's, but there are drug treatments that can temporarily alleviate some symptoms, or slow down the progression in some people.
