The Anonymous Widower

Living Alone Increases Change of Dementia

Swedish research has shown that if you live alone and have a particular gene variant, you are more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s.  Not good.  The full article is on the BBC and here’s an extract.

The researchers studied 2,000 men and women from eastern Finland aged around 50 and again 21 years later.

They looked at their marital status and also carried out genetic tests to see if they carried the gene APOE variant 4.

People living alone in middle-age had twice the risk of dementia than those who were living with a partner.

But widows and widowers had three times the risk of dementia.

And those with the APOE gene variant who had lost their partners and remained living alone had the highest risk of all of developing Alzheimer’s.

 Not good.

July 4, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Health | Alzheimer's