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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
Senior Citizens Worried About Early Dementia May
Just Be Anemic
Study among elderly women finds even mild anemia
has impact
 September 13, 2006 Senior citizens finding it
difficult to think clearly may jump to the conclusion they are
experiencing the early signs of dementia. That may not be the case, say
researchers, it may just be lack of red blood cells, which is causing anemia.
For older adults, anemia's trademark loss of
oxygen-toting red blood cells has long been linked to fatigue, muscle
weakness and other physical ailments. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins
have found a relationship between anemia and impaired thinking, too at
least in older women.
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"Our work supports the notion that mild anemia may
be an independent risk factor for so-called executive-function
impairment in older adults," says Paulo Chaves, M.D., Ph.D., an
assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
and the lead author of the study.
"If further studies confirm that's true, this could
mean that correction of anemia in these patients might offer a chance to
prevent such a cognitive decline."
Reporting on the research in the September issue of
The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the Hopkins
investigators went looking for such an effect because previous studies
showed that age-related declines in the brain's so-called executive
function - problem solving, planning, assessing dangers, following up on
important activities - lead to declines in self-sufficiency.
"Executive function impairment, which happens often
before memory loss occurs, may happen early on in the process of
becoming unable to carry on with instrumental day-to-day living
activities, such as shopping, cooking, taking medications, paying bills,
walking, etc.," says Chaves.
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Understanding Anemia |
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Blood is composed of three types of cells (red
blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets) that circulate throughout
the body. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin (Hb), a red, iron-rich
protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to all of the body's muscles
and organs. Oxygen provides the energy the body needs for all of its
normal activities.
Anemia (ah-NEE-mee-ah) is a medical condition that
occurs when a person does not have enough red blood cells. Red blood
cells are important because they contain hemoglobin, a protein that
carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's muscles and organs. The body
requires oxygen for energy. Therefore, when you are anemic, you may feel
tired mentally and physically.
When the number of red blood cells decreases, the
heart works harder to deliver oxygen where it is needed throughout the
body. Anemia may become worse if it is not treated.
From
www.anemia.com
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Chaves and his team gave three psychological tests
commonly used to evaluate executive function to 364 women, all between
70 and 80 years old, who were living in Baltimore, Md. Approximately 10
percent had anemia, which was of mild intensity.
Some 15 percent of those with the worst results on
all three of the tests were anemic, compared to only 3 percent who
scored best.
Those with anemia were four to five times more
likely to perform worst on the executive function tests, compared to
those with normal blood hemoglobin, after taking into account the effect
of other factors that affect cognition, such as age, education and
existing diseases.
"These preliminary results don't prove that anemia
causes impaired executive function, nor indicate that treatment of
anemia would necessarily lead to better executive function," says
Chaves. "However, they are compelling enough to serve as a roadmap for
continued research."
How anemia could affect thinking remains to be
determined. It could be because it chronically diminishes the supply of
oxygen to the brain. Another view proposes that the fatigue accompanying
anemia leads to inactivity and the loss of aerobic-fitness benefits to
the prefrontal cortex.
Notes:
The study was funded by the National Institute on
Aging and grants from the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence
Center at the Johns Hopkins University; General Clinical Research
Center, National Institutes of Health; and Ortho Biotech Products L.P.,
which produces a medication that stimulates the production of red blood
cells. Chaves has served as a paid consultant for Ortho Biotech Products
L.P. The terms of the latter arrangement were managed by The Johns
Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict of interest policies.
Learn more about anemia from Medline Plus
click here
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