Welcome back to Wellness Unmask with Dr. Nicole Sapphire, and this is your weekly rundown for this week.

A lot of big things happening at the FDA with new FDA Commissioner, Dr. Marty McCarrie.

And one of the big things to come out of the FDA this week is a new FDA-approved blood test for the early detection of Alzheimer's.

Now, this test was actually able to be expedited in its

approval because it is similar to an existing blood test on the market. But what is different with this

blood test is it's looking at the ratio between the amyloid and the tau proteins. And this plasma

ratio test is designed for the early detection of amyloid plaques that are associated

with Alzheimer's disease.

The existing test on the market is a blood test, but it was also needing to be used in conjunction

with more expensive and invasive methodologies like PET slash CT scans or lumbar punctures

to look at spinal fluid.

This blood test is designed to be a

standalone test. So if it is positive, the assumption can be that the patient has Alzheimer's

disease. Now, this is not being recommended as a screening test for everyone to see if they have

Alzheimer's disease. What it's approved for is an adult's age 55 and older who are starting to show signs

and symptoms of the conditions, specifically memory loss, word-finding difficulties. At this point,

after you have been recommended to see a neurologist, the neurologist can decide whether or not

the patient qualifies for this blood test. This new test is exciting because it allows for early

detection and the benefit of early detection is early intervention. So this new test follows the recent

FDA approval of two medications, which are being shown to be highly effective in removing amyloid from

the brain. Clinical trials have shown that these treatment may be able to actually

slow the progression of dementia. Ten years ago, Alzheimer's was thought as having no hope,

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