Weight loss preceding dementia

'We know that the processes that leads to Alzheimer's disease start a long time before the clinical symptoms. This can be as early as 10 and 20 years before the first clinical symptoms appear, but nobody knows for sure. At the International Conference Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD) weight loss was linked to later development of Alzheimer's disease in women. While weight loss shouldn't be used as a diagnostic tool in isolation, the study suggests that it could be used as an indicator of risk of developing the disease together with other signs in women.

The observed weight loss is interesting as it could indicate the part of the brain responsible for weight loss is also one of the first to be damaged by the disease. Further research is now needed to identify what causes this weight loss and why it only occurs in women only.'

Professor Clive Ballard
Director of Research