Weight loss among middle-aged and older women can be an early warning sign of dementia.
The researchers found that middle-aged women who started to develop dementia began to lose weight up to 20 years before the disease is diagnosed and weighed about 12 pounds less than those without the disease at the time of diagnosis .
"An explanation for weight loss is that in the early stages of dementia, people develop apathy, loss of initiative, and also losses in the direction of the smell," says researcher David Knopman, MD , from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., In a news version. "When you can not smell your food, you will not have much taste, and you may be less inclined to eat it. And, apathy and loss of initiative can make women less likely to prepare nutritious and more prone meals. To skip meals at all. "
Researchers say that the results contradict previous studies that have suggested that obesity in middle age can increase the risk of dementia. Obesity is also associated with diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, which are known risk factors for dementia.
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In the study, the researchers analyzed the medical records for 30 or more years of people diagnosed with dementia in Rochester, Minn., from 1990 to 1994 and a group of healthy people reciprocated by sex and age. The results, published in neurology, showed that there were no differences in weight between those diagnosed with dementia and the other 20 to 30 years before the memory the stealing disease was detected. But women with dementia weighed less than healthy people from 11 to 20 years before the disease emerge - and these weight differences grew over time.
In fact, the researchers found a growing risk of dementia with decreasing weight in women for up to 10 years before dementia was diagnosed. However, men who later developed dementia did not lose weight in the years prior to diagnosis, which researchers attach to hormonal or social reasons.
"Middle-aged and elderly men are less likely to prepare their own meals," says Knopman. "Your spouses or adult children were more likely to meal for them, which would diminish the effect of apathy, loss of initiative and loss of sense of smell."
