early detection

I read that there is a new way of detecting Alzheimer's earlier.

The story got front page on the NY Times this morning.

I guess there is some advantage of knowing early and knowing for sure, but if there is nothing that can be done to cure or even really treat the disease, what is the point?

So far we have a few very spendy drugs that may or may not make the patient sharper as they are going down the dark path. These drugs do not promise a cure, and they don't promise to make the disease progress slower. But they might.

There is a lot of controversy about the very efficacy of these drugs, but once the doc says to take them, we are terrified of taking our loved ones off of them. Truthfully, some seem to get great results and some do not.

My suspicion is that we are talking about a whole lot more variables here than we might wish.

Hooray for a small victory, though I am less than wonder struck.

Sorry.