A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that people with dementia who also develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may experience a faster decline in memory and thinking skills.
The findings were published in the journal Gut and highlight the importance of personalized care and closer monitoring for dementia patients with gut inflammation.
IBD includes conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which cause long-term inflammation in the digestive system.
In recent years, researchers have been paying closer attention to the connection between gut health and brain function. Although it’s not fully understood how IBD might impact cognitive decline, this new study adds to growing evidence that the two are connected.
To explore this link, the research team used data from the Swedish register for cognitive and dementia disorders (SveDem).
They focused on people who had already been diagnosed with dementia and later developed IBD.
The study included 111 people with both conditions, who were compared to 1,110 people with dementia but without IBD. The two groups were similar in age, gender, type of dementia, other health conditions, and medications they were taking.
The researchers tracked changes in the participants’ scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a widely used test that measures memory, attention, and problem-solving skills. They looked at how the scores changed over time and compared the rates of decline between the two groups.
They also examined how MMSE scores changed before and after the IBD diagnosis among those affected.
The results showed that people with both dementia and IBD experienced a noticeably faster drop in cognitive function. On average, their MMSE scores declined by almost one full point more per year compared to those with dementia alone. The decline became more significant after they were diagnosed with IBD.
Dr. Hong Xu, assistant professor at the Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society at Karolinska Institutet and the study’s lead researcher, noted that this level of decline is similar to what researchers have seen in studies of the new Alzheimer’s drug donanemab. That means the effect of IBD on the brain could be significant enough to impact the way dementia is managed.
However, the study was observational, which means it can’t prove that IBD causes faster cognitive decline—it can only show a link. The researchers also didn’t have detailed information about how severe the IBD cases were or how the conditions were treated.
Still, the findings suggest that treating IBD in people with dementia might help slow down memory loss. More research is needed to understand how gut inflammation affects the brain and whether managing IBD could offer new hope for patients living with dementia.
If you care about inflammation, please read studies about turmeric: nature’s golden answer to inflammation, and what to eat to reduce chronic Inflammation.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how a plant-based diet could help ease inflammation ,and Vitamin D deficiency linked to increased inflammation.
