Researchers uncover link between weight loss and dementia

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

In the year before dementia sets in, weight loss suddenly accelerates in older people.
There is a great deal of interest in diagnosing Alzheimer's dementia before symptoms become obvious. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine now reveal that weight loss often precedes dementia and maybe this could be a warning sign.

The report comes from the Memory and Aging Project which began in 1979 and is a study of the link between cognitive health and aging. In 1991, researchers began to look into the influence of a person's weight. There is a general loss of weight as people age; this may be because of the wasting effects of cancers and other diseases, a loss of interest in food or a physical shrinkage of the body. In this study, the patients who did become demented weighed about eight pounds less than those who did not at the start. Both groups lost weight at about the same rate until a year before dementia symptoms set in. Over this year, those who would go on to develop dementia lost weight at about twice the rate of those who did stayed free of dementia. The researchers now want to go on to establish the nature of the link between rapid weight loss and dementia. It may be that this could be used as a diagnostic 'biomarker' to allow earlier detection and treatment.

Source
Archives of Neurology September 2006

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