While Alzheimer\u2019s is indiscriminate, recent studies have found that women are bearing a disproportionate amount of the Alzheimer\u2019s burden:<\/p>\n
Aside from the fact that 60% of all Alzheimer\u2019s caregivers are women, at the age of 65, women have a 1 in 6 chance of developing Alzheimer\u2019s, compared to a 1 in 11 chance for men. Additionally, out of the 5 million people living with Alzheimer\u2019s in the U.S., 3.2 million are women.<\/p>\n
Research has found that women in their 60s are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer\u2019s than to develop breast cancer.
\nMaria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, said of these risks:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are enough biological questions pointing to increased risk in women that we need to delve into that and find out why. There is a lot that is not understood and not known. It\u2019s time we did something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking action, the Alzheimer\u2019s Association brought together 15 of the world\u2019s leading scientists to look further into why Alzheimer\u2019s is more likely in women.<\/p>\n
Risk Factors Beyond Longevity
\nUntil now, the gap had been largely attributed to the longevity of women, since age is the number one risk factor for Alzheimer\u2019s. Roberta Diaz Brinton, a University of Southern California professor who studies gender differences said, \u201cIt is true that age is the greatest risk factor for developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u201d But she went on to say, \u201con average, women live four or five years longer than men and we know that Alzheimer\u2019s is a disease that starts 20 years before the diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus far, genetic studies have offered a startling account for the difference. Researchers from Stanford University studied over 8,000 people looking for a form of the gene ApoE-4, a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer\u2019s. They found that women who carry a copy of that particular gene variant were twice as likely to eventually develop Alzheimer\u2019s as women without the gene. Men who had the gene were only at a slightly increased risk than men who did not have the gene. While it is not clear why the gene poses such a drastic increase in risk, Brinton believes it may be how the gene interacts with estrogen.<\/p>\n
Another study suggests that it may be related to heart health. A study from Framingham, Massachusetts suggests that because men are more likely to die from heart disease in middle age, those men who live past 65 may have healthier hearts which may protect the brain from Alzheimer\u2019s. These two diseases share many risk factors including high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0alzheimers.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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