Alzheimer's accompany weight loss in women and not in men

July 20, 2006

A new research shows that women intended to be identifying with Alzheimer’s disease frequently shows a decrease in body weight many years before symptom begin however men who develop Alzheimer’s don’t show any weight reduction symptom.

Dr. David Knopman, from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota said "Ten years before patients developed the expected symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, their weights were subtly dropping -- a finding that has been seen in other studies. Our twist was that this was only observed in women, not men”.

Knopman presented the finding on Alzheimer's Disease on Sunday at Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Madrid. The study was based on the people living in Olmsted and all of them were of 30 years of age or less.  

The researchers analyzed 560 patients with Alzheimer's disease and a same number of patients of the same age and sex who don’t have dementia.

Thirty years ago, dementia comes. The comparison of the women identified with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia had same weight of 140 pounds. Alzheimer’s patient lost about 136 pounds in 10 years before they have been diagnosed and 128 pounds after they have been diagnosed for Alzheimer’s whereas those who did not have dementia were marked stability in their weight.

According to Knopman three possible clarifications are
"Early Alzheimer's disease is associated with apathy and this could mean that affected patients are less likely to cook and eat."
Second, the early brain changes may affect taste centers, making food less palatable and thereby decrease appetite.
And the Third one is, early disease may have an effect on the satiety centers in the brain.

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