Women who need to take calcium supplements to prevent bone fractures should discuss this with their treating physician and try to find calcium in food. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and those from University College London (Great Britain) have just discovered that calcium supplementation favors the development of dementia in certain women with a history or at risk of stroke.
A risk multiplied by 7 in women who have had a stroke
The researchers tested their theory by following a group of 700 women between the ages of 70 and 92 for five years who had no no signs of dementia at the start of the study. A brain scan was performed and the participants performed regular memory tests. The results showed that women who took calcium supplements were twice as likely to develop dementia as those who did not. And this risk was multiplied by 7 in women with a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack, two vascular diseases that affect the brain.
Same multiplication of the risk (but this time by three) in women whose scanner had revealed lesions of the white matter of the brain.
“In total, 14% of women receiving calcium supplementation developed dementia compared to 8% of women who received no supplementation” say the researchers.
Their study was published in the journal Neurology.
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