Weight
Loss, Dementia Research) Weight loss, which has been associated with
dementia and Alzheimer's disease, may begin up to six years before
diagnosis, a new research in Archives of Neurology suggests.
Weight Loss is common among the elderly. It could be triggered by
pro-longed disease but the consequences could be serious. In Case
they don't eat much as desire to eat reduces in some cases, health
could suffer more.
Robert Stewart, M.D., From the Institute of Psychiatry, London, and
colleagues analyzed data from 1,890 men (aged 77-98 years) who were
participants in The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study.
Their report appears in the January issue of Archives of
Neurology. This population-based study of Japanese American
men included 112 men with incident [new onset] dementia and 1,778
without dementia. Weight was measured at each examination and
dementia was ascertained at the three most recent examinations.
The
Study was based over a period of 32 years.
In middle age, their average body mass index (BMI) was 24. That’s a
normal BMI, which suggests a normal amount of body fat for more of
subjects.
Dementia was eventually diagnosed in 112 men. Over the last six
years of the study, they had lost a little less than one extra pound
per year than those without dementia.
But over time, it added up to a loss of at least 11 pounds for the
men with dementia. That’s about 10% of their body weight, say the
researchers, noting that the men never had much weight to spare.
In certain cases, the weight loss preceded the dementia diagnosis by
two to four years which clearly points that weight loss could be an
early warning sign of future dementia.
Patients suffering from dementia may forget to eat which in turn
reduces their nutritional intakes. Hence most of them could become
more physically dependent.
It’s too soon to know if avoiding weight loss could help prevent or
slow dementia, says Michael Grundman, MD, MPH, in an accompanying
editorial.
Grundman, an Alzheimer’s disease specialist with Elan
Pharmaceuticals points out “It may be too optimistic to suppose that
nutritional approaches will necessarily have a huge impact,”
Now,
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