Dementia Support Line
Chronic inflammation in middle age may lead to thinking and memory problems later
People who have chronic inflammation in middle-age may develop problems with thinking and memory in the decades leading up to old age, according to a new study published in the online journal Neurology.
Inflammation is a natural response to damage or infection that helps the body to cope, however it can cause damage itself if it lasts for a long time. When the sticky amyloid plaques form in the brain, the immune system triggers inflammation which worsens the damage to the brain cells.
We know that inflammation plays a key role in the development of dementia.
Researchers studied 12,336 people with an average age of 57 for approximately 20 years. They took blood samples at the start of the study and measured four biomarkers of inflammation: fibrinogen, white blood cell count, von Willebrand factor, and factor VIII. Three years later, they measured another biomarker, C-reactive protein. Participants’ thinking and memory skills were tested at the beginning of the study, then six to nine years later, and again at the end of the study.
Higher levels of inflammation and steeper levels of memory decline
The study found that people with the highest levels of inflammation biomarkers had an 8% steeper decline in thinking and memory skills over the course of the study than those with the lowest levels of inflammation biomarkers. People with the highest C-reactive protein levels had a 12% steeper decline in thinking and memory skills than those with the lowest levels.
Dr James Pickett, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Society, said:
'This intriguing research adds weight to existing evidence linking chronic inflammation with decline in memory and thinking skills - but nobody in the study had dementia, so it can’t tell us if inflammation is an early symptom or a potential trigger for the disease.
"Preventing dementia is key, and as we’ve had no new dementia drugs in more than 15 years, the links with inflammation are a promising avenue which our researchers are hard at work to better understand. We urgently need to find out how lifestyle changes may guard against the disease, including whether reducing inflammation could also reduce dementia risk."
There are clinical trials ongoing that are testing drugs to reduce the level of inflammation in the brain.