Could a blood test in middle age predict dementia risk?

Conclusion Inflammation in the body is a response to injury or disease. But if the body is constantly in an inflammatory state, it can harm blood vessels and lead to heart disease. This study suggests high levels of inflammation over the long term might also damage the brain. That's not surprising – what's good for the heart is usually good for the brain, and we already know exercising, avoiding high blood pressure and eating healthily may help protect the brain. Studies like this will help researchers work out more precisely what's happening in the brain when people experience memory loss or dementia. But this study has some limitations. The first and most important is that researchers didn't measure people's brain volume at the start of the study. This means we don't know whether the results at the end of the study end represent brain shrinkage, or whether some people had always had smaller brain volume in certain areas. This makes it harder to be sure that differences in inflammatory markers predated the differences in brain volume. This type of study design can't prove cause and effect – and in this case, it can't prove that one situation predated another. Also, the substances measured may not be very precise measures of inflammation – they're also involved in other physiological processes. And the study didn't look at whether people with higher inflammatory markers were more likely to get dementia, only at their brain volume and performance in one type of memory te...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news