The way you hold the pen can predict the risk of a disease that has no medicine

 A study found that the way a pen holds can indicate the risk of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, and cause a person to slowly lose their memory and ability to carry out daily tasks.

Alzheimer's disease is known to develop over several years before the onset of its symptoms, and therefore may be difficult to detect.

However, there are some early signals in a person's behaviour, which can indicate a possible diagnosis of Alzheimer's, which looms large.

• The newly identified alarming symptom of the situation may be if the handwriting is somewhat wobbly.

• Medical professionals often use pen and paper tests to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, and require a person to draw a shape such as a star or the face of an hour of memory.

• The lower an individual's ability to do so, the greater his or her likelihood of dementia.

• Researchers from Tsukuba University of Japan have now discovered other signs in pen and paper tests that can appear early.

They recruited 144 people with varying levels of cognitive capacity, including some with dementia and some with good health.

Each participant underwent five different drawing tests in which the researchers measured 22 drawing features.

Features included, pen compression, pen positioning, speed and how often a person temporarily stopped drawing.

Researchers then compared these features and used computer software to see how well graphic traits were used to identify people with or without natural perception.

Some patients had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is when someone suffers from memory loss slightly worse than aging, but not as serious as dementia, they are still able to perform daily activities.

Researchers were able to identify people with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's based on the drawing method, where Alzheimer's had a greater variation in pen pressure, meaning some lines were soft and strong, while others were weak and wobbly.

They also stopped longer and their speed was slower.

The accuracy of the five tests combined to detect Alzheimer's patients is 75.2%.

Professor Titsuaki Arai, senior author of the study, said: "Although it is clear that graphic features associated with movement and pause can be used to detect cognitive impairments, most screening tests remain relatively inaccurate. We wondered what would happen if we analyzed these features while people performed a range of different drawing tasks. The accuracy of the three-set rating for all five tests was 75.2%, which is about 10% better than any of the tests themselves. "

Alzheimer's disease affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over 80.

1. It is not a natural part of old age
2. and leads to a person forgetting simple things such as how to hold a shoelace or know the time, and at worst
3. patients will forget their partner for decades or their children
4. which is devastating for those around them.

Despite research and studies on the incurable disease for decades, scientists are still unable to develop a cure for Alzheimer's, but there are medications to relieve symptoms when diagnosis is as early as possible.