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Weight Loss Often Precedes Onset of Dementia
Last Updated: 2005-01-10 16:00:32 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Anthony J. Brown, MD
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that it is common for
patients with Alzheimer's or vascular dementia to lose a few pounds in
weight in the years before their condition is diagnosed, US investigators
report.
They say further studies are needed to determine why this occurs, and
whether nutritional interventions would have any impact.
Previous studies have looked at the link between weight loss and dementia,
but most have not been able to answer the question of which comes first. The
present, forward-looking study has "to my knowledge, the longest follow-up
period of any (similar) study to date," Dr. Lenore J. Launer, from the
National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, told Reuters Health.
The results, which appear in the January issue of the Archives of Neurology,
are based on analysis of data from 1890 men who participated in the
Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, a 32-year, population-based study of Japanese
American men.
As part of the study, the subjects were weighted six times between 1965 and
1999 and were screened for dementia three times between 1991 and 1999.
At the last examination, the average age of the participants was 83 years,
and 112 men had been diagnosed with dementia.
During the first 26 years of follow-up, no differences in original weight or
weight change were seen between subjects who did or did not develop
dementia. In the last 6 years, however, weight loss was greater in the group
that developed dementia.
During this most recent period, the average weight loss for non-demented
participants was 0.48 pounds per year, while those who became demented lost
0.79 pounds per year more than this.
To explain the link between weight loss and dementia, Launer commented that
"as dementia is developing, it is possible that chemicals in the brain are
changing so that a person's appetite is decreased or their metabolism is
altered."
Dr. Michael Grundman, from Elan Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, notes in a
related editorial that genetic factors play a large part in Alzheimer's
disease, so "it may be too optimistic to suppose that nutritional approaches
will necessarily have a huge impact on preventing Alzheimer's disease or
slowing cognitive decline."
Nevertheless, he says, "even modest effects could have large public health
implications."
SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, January 2005
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