Study Finds Weight Loss Could be a Dementia Sign
Posted on July 21, 2006
The BBC reports on a study that has found dementia may be an early sign of dementia. The study followed a group of 1,000 women and found that some of them had an unexpected loss in weight before any dementia symptoms began. In some cases the weight loss was as early a decade before the dementia symptoms started.
The researchers identified 560 people who were diagnosed with dementia between 1990 and 1994. They then found a group of people of similar age who did not have dementia.One of the theories mentioned in the article is that dementia could result in the women being not as hungry. It could also mean that the weight loss occurs because the part of the brain responsible for weight control is damaged by whatever is causing the dementia.They looked back at the weight of all of the patients over the preceding 30 years.
Among the women in the study, those who later developed dementia started off at the same weight as those who did not develop dementia, but then their weight drifted downward by a few pounds 10 years before the developed any dementia symptoms.
The weight of these women also went downward a few more pounds when the memory loss first manifested.