Complain about a product or service

For Women, Weight Loss May Precede Dementia

July 17, 2006

• Too Much Selenium Can Increase Cholesterol • Money Management Problems Could Be Alzheimer's Warning • Mediterranean Diet Linked With Lower Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease • High Cholesterol In Midlife Raises Risk Of Late-Life Dementia • Some Blood Pressure Drugs May Help Protect Against Dementia • Study Suggests Earlier Alzheimer's Treatment • Alzheimer's Cases Rise Among "Oldest Old" • Researchers Find Caffeine Effective Alzheimer’s Treatment • Landmark Alzheimer's Drug Cleared For Clinical Trials • Blood Test May Diagnose Alzheimer's • Diet May Be Factor in Memory Retention • Insulin May Combat Alzheimer's • Moderate Drinking Can Reduce Risks of Alzheimer's • Daily Pill Said To Stop Alzheimer's • Low Levels of 'Good Cholesterol' Linked to Memory Loss, Dementia Risk • Chemical in Celery May Fight Alzheimer's • Dementia Linked To Obesity • Studies Find Link Between Diabetes and Alzheimer's --- • Index to all Alzheimer's stories

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that women who develop dementia experience a decline in weight as many as 10 years prior to the onset of memory loss, compared to peers who do not develop dementia.

Findings were presented over the weekend at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid, Spain.

"We discovered that the weight of those women who developed dementia was drifting downward many years before the onset of symptoms," says David Knopman, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead study researcher.

"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."

Knopman and colleagues conducted this retrospective study, analyzing the medical records of people seen by a medical provider in Olmsted County, home of Mayo Clinic, who were diagnosed with the onset of dementia between 1990 and 1994.

They identified 560 patients and, for comparison, also identified a group of those similar in age and gender who did not develop dementia.

For each patient, weight was identified for the year of dementia diagnosis and then for the 20 to 30 years preceding. The weights of those patients who didn't develop dementia were tracked over the same period.

"In those women who did not go on to develop dementia, 30 years before the year of their peers' onset of dementia, their average weight was 140 pounds," Knopman said.

"At the year of their peers' dementia onset, they weighed 142 pounds. The women who later developed dementia started off at the same weight as those who didn't develop dementia, but then their weight drifted downward to 136 pounds 10 years before symptom onset and 128 pounds at symptom onset."

The cause of the weight loss in those women who later developed dementia is unclear, according to Knopman, but the investigators have some theories.

"The weight loss findings raise scientific questions about the cause or causes of the weight loss," says Dr. Knopman. "This points to changes in the brain that develop years before the actual memory loss.

"We think that there are several possible explanations. The women might have less initiative and lose interest in eating, they might develop a duller sense of taste and smell, or they might experience an earlier sense of satiety (feeling full). Also, because we didn't observe the anticipatory weight loss in men, the weight loss could have something specific to do with postmenopausal hormonal changes."

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Share		Follow us on Twitter.