People who are depressed, anxious or (more surprisingly) constipated are more often affected by Alzheimer’s disease. It is the result of a extensive study conducted by a team from the Paris Brain Institute and the University of Bordeaux and published in February 2022 in The Lancet Digital Health.
And among the 39,672 patients with Alzheimer’s, ten of the 123 health problems studied appeared to be significantly more associated with the subsequent diagnosis of the disease. There depression and theanxiety are among the two main risk factors for dementia identified by researchers. They also listed prolonged exposure to stress, constipation or hearing loss as other factors.
But rest assured, it is not because you suffer from one of these disorders listed by the researchers that you will be systematically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s: the study does not show no causal link and only proposes a statistical association between these factors and the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. “Our work has confirmed known associations, such as hearing problems or depressionnote the authors of the study. But he also highlighted other lesser-known factors or early symptoms, such as cervical spondylosis or constipation. The question remains whether these health problems are risk factors, symptoms or warning signs of the disease.”
Ways to better detect the onset of Alzheimer’s disease
Even if this study does not provide concrete proof of the link between these factors and the onset of the disease, it could provide leads to be able to detect Alzheimer’s as early as possible depending on certain lifestyles. “These results could guide the implementation of new primary and secondary prevention policies.“, says the study.
By intervening directly on lifestyles (reduction of obesity, sedentary lifestyle, hypertension, as well as the consumption of alcohol and tobacco), we could thus prevent or delay up to 40% of Alzheimer’s cases.
Sources:
- “Identifying health conditions associated with Alzheimer’s disease up to 15 years before diagnosis: an agnostic study of French and British health records”, The Lancet Digital HealthFebruary 2022
- France Alzheimer
- Diving into the heart of Alzheimer’sInserm, 2019
Read also:
- Postmenopausal before age 40 increases risk of Alzheimer’s disease
- Alzheimer’s: how to reduce the risk by 33%? It’s quite simple
- You have memory lapses ? It’s normal
