Alex Ossola

How do you know if someone has Alzheimer's disease?

For years, doctors relied on memory tests, invasive spinal taps, and expensive imaging to diagnose it.

Now, two new blood tests from manufacturers Fuji-Rabio and Roche have been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and should make it easier.

Alex Janin, who covers health and wellness for the journal, is here to tell us more.

Alex, how do the tests work?

What is the advantage over the traditional diagnosis method?

So if a test does come back indicating that you are at heightened risk of developing Alzheimer's, what can you actually do about it?

Back to the tests for a minute.

You report that doctors say people who don't have symptoms are asking for them.

Why is that?

That was WSJ reporter Alex Janin.

Thanks, Alex.

Thank you.

And finally, we've all been there.

You're listening to a podcast while also cooking dinner and also answering your kid who's asking what you're doing for the hundredth time that day.

For years, scientists said we weren't actually able to multitask.

That what we perceive to be doing two or more things at once is in fact the result of our brains quickly switching between tasks.

But a recent study published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience suggests that our brains really can multitask.

With enough practice and experience, the brain can rewire its circuitry to send certain tasks from the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for high-level thinking and decision-making, to other parts of the brain.

We're effectively automating these tasks, making them easier to do.