Social Media Misuse Threatens Alzheimer’s Blood Test Advances
WHO:
The Guardian - Dr. Jenna Smith from the University of Sydney’s school of public health
The Guardian - Prof. Susan Kurrle, president of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine
RealClearHealth - Joe Grogan, Nonresident Senior Scholar at the USC Schaeffer Institute and former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Trump
RealClearHealth - Norm Enriquez, a California Alzheimer's patient
WHAT:
The Guardian - The tests for Alzheimer’s disease, when ordered through a doctor in Australia, cost up to $400 and are not covered by Medicare.
The Guardian - Patients seeking out the tests online are being charged $600, before undergoing an eligibility assessment.
The Guardian - Another provider offers the test for $365 with no mention of pre-test screening.
The Guardian - Researchers warn that social media is misleading healthy individuals into taking Alzheimer’s blood tests.
The Guardian - Blood-based biomarker tests, including p-tau217 and p-tau181, detect biological signs of changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The Guardian - More than one-third of social media posts analyzed promoted Alzheimer’s tests for asymptomatic individuals.
RealClearHealth - The FDA cleared two more Alzheimer’s blood tests last month.
RealClearHealth - The bipartisan Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention Act (ASAP Act) aims to extend Medicare coverage for FDA-cleared blood tests for preventive screening.
WHERE:
The Guardian - Australia (specifically mentioned in the context of test costs and Medicare coverage).
RealClearHealth - California (discussed in the context of the ASAP Act and healthcare costs).
WHEN:
The Guardian - The findings of the research were published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on Tuesday.
RealClearHealth - The ASAP Act has not been marked up, debated, or passed nearly a year after its introduction.
WHY:
The Guardian - There is a global consensus that Alzheimer’s blood tests should not be used for healthy individuals without symptoms.
The Guardian - The main potential harms of unnecessary testing include false diagnoses and lack of clear next steps for individuals.
RealClearHealth - The ASAP Act aims to address the gap between scientific innovation and Medicare policy to improve early diagnosis and intervention.
HOW:
Nature - Researchers identified 4,321 microproteins in post-mortem brain samples, 3,217 of which had not been previously characterized in a standard catalogue of human proteins.
Nature - The study used a combination of mass spectrometry, RNA sequencing, and ribosomal profiling to detect microproteins in brain tissue.
The Guardian - Researchers analyzed 188 social media posts from accounts with a combined global audience of over 114 million followers.
RealClearHealth - The ASAP Act would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority to extend Medicare coverage for preventive screening.
(UPDATED September 16, 2026 16:02 UTC)
In Australia, tests for Alzheimer’s disease can cost patients up to $400 when ordered through a doctor, and those seeking the tests online may face charges as high as $600 after an eligibility assessment. Another provider offers the test for $365 without requiring any pre-test screening. Meanwhile, researchers have made significant strides in understanding brain health by identifying 4,321 microproteins in post-mortem brain samples, with 3,217 of those previously uncharacterized, using advanced techniques like mass spectrometry and RNA sequencing.
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(UPDATED September 16, 2026 10:42 UTC)
Researchers are raising concerns that social media is misleading healthy individuals into taking Alzheimer’s blood tests, with over one-third of analyzed posts promoting these tests for asymptomatic people. The FDA recently cleared two additional Alzheimer’s blood tests, and the bipartisan Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention Act aims to extend Medicare coverage for these preventive screenings, though it has yet to be debated or passed nearly a year after its introduction. Experts, including Dr. Jenna Smith and Prof. Susan Kurrle, emphasize that there is a global consensus against using these tests on healthy individuals due to the risks of false diagnoses and unclear next steps.