In recent years, doctors at the Department of Neurology at the Beilinson Hospital have noticed an interesting feature: most patients under the age of 65 who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or other dementia diseases are of Mizrahi (Eastern) origin.
Channel 12 News reported that a study conducted by the hospital examined the medical records of hundreds of patients and the researchers discovered that their medical theory was correct.
"We want to identify the genes and genetic risk factors that cause these people to contract this disease," said Dr. Amir Glick, director of the director of the Cognitive Neurology Clinic.
As the disease is incurable, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US found the study interesting and have decided to award Beilinson a special grant of NIS 53 million to expand research in this field.
It was also reported that the follow-up study will be carried out in collaboration with Boston University in the US and with two Israeli hospitals: Barzilai in Ashkelon and Laniado in Netanya.
The research will focus on a group of about 4,000 Alzheimer's patients in Israel up to age 65, which are fewer than 2.6% of the 150,000 Alzheimer patients in Israel today.