Hormone in Women Linked to Dementia, Study Finds

ABC News ^ | January 2, 2012 | Carrie Gann

[decimon]

Researchers have found a possible connection between a hormone found in body fat and the risk of dementia, adding to the growing evidence on the potential link between the condition and diabetes.

A new study found that women with high levels of a hormone called adiponectin were at an increased risk of developing dementia. Scientists say the findings reflect the complicated and still unclear relationships between metabolism, hormones and the brain degeneration that occurs in dementia.

The researchers studied frozen blood samples from 840 of the participants from the large Framingham Heart Study, taken after the patients had been monitored for 13 years. In the 159 people who developed dementia, researchers found high levels of adiponectin.

Adiponectin helps the body use insulin to deliver fuels like glucose to different cells, such as the neurons in the brain. Study author Dr. Ernst Schaefer, a professor of medicine and nutrition at Tufts University, said he and his colleagues were surprised to find that women with high levels of the hormone had an increased risk of dementia.

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The researchers also found high levels of the hormone in the men with dementia, but Schaefer said there were not enough men in the study to establish a link as strong as the one in women.

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[decimon]

Ping

[mamelukesabre]

so...being fat increases risk of dementia?

[TruthBeforeAll]

Hormone in Women Linked to Dementia in men, Study Finds

Seems more reasonable.

[madison10]

so...being fat increases risk of dementia?

I wouldn't automatically draw that conclusion. The hormone is in fat, but does everyone have the hormone? I've read that when a person is going into dementia/Alzheimer's he or she loses a great deal of weight in a short period of time.

The people I know that have Alzheimer's come in all shapes, sizes, and sexes.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Hormone in Women Linked to Dementia, Study Finds

... haven’t we always known this??

[Silentgypsy]

Hopefully, if I don’t have too many hormones, I won’t develop AD?

[Sacajaweau]

So we’re naturally demented??

[hellbender]

I think it was already known that obesity increases the risk of Alzheimer's:

http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/guide/20061101/obesity-alzheimers-risk

[decimon]

So we’re naturally demented??

You go, girl!

[decimon]

Hopefully, if I don’t have too many hormones, I won’t develop AD?

I guess you could go for hormone displacement therapy.

[Silentgypsy]

Darlin’, I’ve already refused HRT which is why I’m still alive.

[Sacajaweau]

You go, girl!

Got the same reply from my daughter when I told her the FREE deals I got at Staples today!!

It's a sign right? She's humoring me right? That's what you're supposed to do with us "naturals", right??

[Mr. K]

On a related topic-

Why do you think they called it PMS?

Because Mad Cow Disease was already taken

[Silentgypsy]

Oops. “Displacement?” You might have something there! (Need new reading glasses.)

[gfbtbb]

Since the late bronze age.
Nothing is new.

[SunkenCiv]

I won’t say it.

[CaptainK]

"Different people have different metabolic set points and that can change over the lifespan," said Dr. Samuel Gandy, professor of Alzheimer's disease research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "In one group, you have midlife obesity leading to late-life complications; in another group, there might be not obesity but instead late life weight loss, and that can also lead to complications."."

I think the article is saying this hormone can change the metabolism to increase or decrease fat to an unhealthy level and both scenarios can lead to dementia.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Don’t you think it’s kind of ridiculous that “obesity” is being blamed for EVERY medical problem?

I think someone just doesn’t want to see fat people.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I don’t think that’s the bottom line. Likely it’s mostly that women have more body fat by nature, and have this hormone in it. They mention men but don’t have enough empirical study on it.