Risk Of Dementia Higher If Better-Half Has It

A revolutionary original research has proposed that partners of persons suffering from Dementia are at a significantly higher danger of themselves contracting dementia.

A detailed study that was carried out for close to a decade on 1200 couples have revealed that women who took care of their dementia afflicted husbands were close to four times more prone to developing dementia than the wives of men that did not have dementia.

Maria Norton, an associate gerontology professor at Utah University stated that husband care providers were found to be close to 12 times more prone to get dementia in comparison to those husbands of healthy women.

Ralph Nixon, a practising psychiatrist and an Alzheimer’s disease specialist at New York University said that though Dementia is non-communicable, the level of stress that a person encounters whilst tending to a dementia-stricken spouse is quite high. Stress is the proven potential risk factor to cause dementia. Stressed out persons tend to neglect eating healthy food and exercising regularly, the crucial duo which are vital to a healthy brain.

This research was presented during the 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease. An implausible question that loomed large is why is it so that husband care providers were more at risk than women who tended to dementia afflicted husbands.

The reason could be that men avoid or delay visiting the doctor unless prodded by their wives to do so. This behaviour puts them at greater risk of developing high levels of cholesterol and blood pressure along with other situations, which impel the onset of dementia. Many aged men are majorly reliant on their wives for maintaining social stance. So, if the wife is affected by dementia, the social support net also shrivels due to it.

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