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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Study Finds Further Evidence of Rapid Weight Loss in
Senior Citizens Before Alzheimer's
It is still unclear
exactly why weight loss is associated with dementia
 September 11, 2006 A new study joins a growing
list of research reports indicating there is some association between
Alzheimer's disease and rapid weight loss in senior citizens. The latest
research has pinpointed a doubling of weight loss in the year before the
onset of Alzheimer's disease. Weight loss the slow and steady kind
is normal for many aging seniors but the researchers say a speed up can
indicate Alzheimer's and related dementias. (See other studies on this
subject in sidebar.)
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on
Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health |
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Changes that occur with aging, such as reduced
appetite and diminishing height, may induce weight loss in older adults,
according to background information in the article appearing in the
September issue of the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives
journals. Alzheimer's disease has also been linked to age-related weight
loss.
Those in the late stages of the disease can lose up
to 2 pounds per year; those who lose more weight are more likely to
progress quickly and to be placed in a nursing home.
David K. Johnson, Ph.D., and colleagues at
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, studied weight loss
before the development of dementia in 449 healthy adults (192 men, 257
women).
At the beginning of the study and then yearly for
an average of six years, the participants were assessed for dementia,
weighed and asked questions about their medical history.
Over the course of the study, 125 participants
developed dementia related to Alzheimer's disease. Those who did weighed
about eight pounds less at the beginning of the study than those who did
not develop Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, "an acceleration in the rate of weight
loss was a harbinger of the change from non-demented status to dementia
of the Alzheimer's type," the authors write.
"Participants lost about .6 pounds per year while
without dementia, but one year before the first symptomatic detection of
dementia of the Alzheimer's type, the rate of weight loss in individuals
doubled to 1.2 pounds per year."
This association held when the researchers
controlled for other factors that might influence weight loss, including
age, sex, health status, hypertension (high blood pressure) and stroke
history.
It is unclear exactly why weight loss is associated
with dementia, the authors write. Some have hypothesized that
individuals with dementia forget to eat, but this is unlikely given the
finding that weight loss precedes the onset of memory problems and other
dementia symptoms.
Depression has also been suggested as a link, but
although study participants with dementia were more depressed, depressed
patients did not have any changes in body weight compared with those who
were non-depressed.
"There are reports of mild to moderate changes in
taste and smell in healthy aging populations and in populations with
dementia, and these factors need to be measured rigorously in future
studies," the authors write.
"Subtle gustatory changes could result in
cumulative decreases in caloric intake or decreases in the quality of
food consumed by individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer's type."
If these results are confirmed in larger studies,
they conclude, "weight loss may be a preclinical indicator of
Alzheimer's disease."
Editor's Note: This study was supported by grants
from the National Institute on Aging and by the Alan A. and Edith L.
Wolff Charitable Trust. Please see the article for additional
information, including other authors, author contributions and
affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.
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