Weight Loss Can Precede Alzheimers Onset By Ten Years

If an elderly woman loses weight, it is possible she will develop Alzheimer's disease in the coming years, say researchers from The Mayo Clinic, USA, in a study of over 1,000 people. Many people in the study who had dementia had lost weight up to ten years before symptoms of memory loss began to show.

The researchers, who presented their findings at an Alzheimer's Conference, Madrid, Spain, stressed that weight loss in an elderly woman does not mean she will get Alzheimer's. A bit like not all fruit are bananas, but all bananas are fruit - not all elderly women who lose weight will develop dementia, but a large proportion of women who developed Alzheimer's had lost weight some years before the onset of the disease. The researchers believe this finding will perhaps provide some clues regarding the brain mechanisms of dementia.

The scientists identified two groups of people. 560 had been diagnosed with dementia during 1990-1994. They were compared to another similar-sized group of people, during the same period, who did not have dementia. All the people's weights were observed up to 30 years before 1990-1994.

They found that the women with dementia had had similar bodyweights to the women without dementia many decades before 1990-1994. However, about ten years before that 1990-1994, those that went on to develop dementia lost a few pounds, while the women who did not develop dementia did not. The women lost some more weight when the dementia symptoms began to show.

Dr David Knopman, Mayo Clinic, said "The weight of those women who developed dementia was drifting downward many years before the onset of symptoms. This illustrates changes that occur before the memory loss and mental decline in dementia. We believe that the brain disease began to interfere somehow with maintenance of body weight, long before it affected memory and thinking." He wondered whether the disease that brings on dementia may cause women to become less interesting in eating food - perhaps even interfering with their sense of taste and/or smell. Another possibility, Knopman added, is that these women began to have an earlier sense of satiety.

(Sense of satiety = Sensation of feeling full, satisfied) In this study the weight-loss phenomenon was only found among women. Men who developed dementia had not experienced prior weight loss. A 2005 study did indicate that men lose weight years before the onset of Alzheimer symptoms.

The researchers, and several experts, say further research is needed to confirm this data.

Alzheimer's Conference, Madrid, Spain
擨ncident Dementia In Women Is Preceded By Weight Loss By At Least A Decade?/b>
David S. Knopman (1), Walter A. Rocca (1), Steven D. Edland (2), Ruth H. Cha (1), Ronald C. Petersen (1)
(1) 1Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA
(2) University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA
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Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
(责任编辑：泉水)

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Weight Loss Can Precede Alzheimers Onset By Ten Years