Scientists from Brown University found that older people with hypothyroidism, also called underactive thyroid, may be at increased risk of developing dementia.
The risk of developing dementia was even higher for people whose thyroid condition required thyroid hormone replacement medication.
The research is published in Neurology and was conducted by Chien-Hsiang Weng et al.
Hypothyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland doesn’t make enough thyroid hormones. This can slow metabolism. Symptoms include feeling tired, weight gain, and sensitivity to cold.
In the study, researchers looked at the health records of 7,843 people newly diagnosed with dementia in Taiwan and compared them to the same number of people who did not have dementia. Their average age was 75.
Researchers looked to see who had a history of either hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism, which is also called overactive thyroid, is when the thyroid produces too much hormone.
This can increase metabolism. Symptoms include unintended weight loss, rapid or irregular heartbeat, and nervousness or anxiety.
The team found a total of 102 people had hypothyroidism and 133 had hyperthyroidism.
They found that people over age 65 with hypothyroidism were 80% more likely to develop dementia than people of the same age who did not have thyroid problems.
For people younger than 65, having a history of hypothyroidism was not linked to an increased risk of dementia.
When researchers looked only at people who took medication for hypothyroidism, they found they were three times more likely to develop dementia than those who did not take medication.
One explanation for this could be that these people are more likely to experience greater symptoms from hypothyroidism where treatment was needed.
The team says that the observational study does not prove that hypothyroidism is a cause of dementia; it only shows an association.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about antibiotic drug that could help treat common dementia, and bottom blood pressure number can tell your dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about new stem cell therapy to treat dementia, and results showing
function insertAfter(e, t) {
t.parentNode.insertBefore(e, t.nextSibling)
}
function getElementByXPath(e, t) {
if (!t) t = document;
if (t.evaluate) return t.evaluate(e, document, null, 9, null).singleNodeValue;
while (e.charAt(0) == "/") e = e.substr(1);
var n = t;
var r = e.split("/");
for (var i = 0; i < r.length; i++) {
var a = r[i].split(/(\w*)\[(\d*)\]/gi).filter(function(e) {
return !(e == "" || e.match(/\s/gi))
}, this);
var l = a[0];
var o = a[1] ? a[1] - 1 : 0;
if (i < r.length - 1) n = n.getElementsByTagName(l)[o];
else return n.getElementsByTagName(l)[o]
}
}
if (!Array.prototype.filter) {
Array.prototype.filter = function(e) {
var t = this.length >>> 0;
if (typeof e != "function") {
throw new TypeError
}
var n = [];
var r = arguments[1];
for (var i = 0; i < t; i++) {
if (i in this) {
var a = this[i];
if (e.call(r, a, i, this)) {
n.push(a)
}
}
}
return n
}
}
function injectWidgetByXpath(e) {
var t = getElementByXPath(e);
if (t == null) {
t = document.getElementById("tbdefault")
}
innerInject(t)
}
function injectWidgetByMarker(e) {
var t = document.getElementById(e);
innerInject(t.parentNode)
}
function innerInject(e) {
var t = document.createElement("span");
var n = document.createElement("script");
var r = "if JS crashes here, the first innerHTML value should be enclosed with single quotes instead of double, go to the minified version and change it";
t.innerHTML = "";
n.innerHTML = "window._taboola = window._taboola || [];_taboola.push({mode:'alternating-thumbnails-a', container:'taboola-below-article-thumbnails', placement:'below-article', target_type: 'mix'});";
insertAfter(t, e);
insertAfter(n, t)
}
injectWidgetByMarker('tbmarker');
