Why Does Alzheimer’s Affect Women More? Study Will Find Out

What’s up with Alzheimer’s affecting more women than men?

Studies about Alzheimer’s have found that the gene associated with the disease, APOE, or rather the APOE4 gene variant specifically, affects women more. Thus, the risk of a woman contracting Alzheimer’s disease is higher.
What’s worse about this is that the gene variant, APOE4, is common in 1 in 5 people, as evident in the 2012 article Genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease. So, the chances of Alzheimer’s affecting women more rises with the commonality of the gene variant.

In 2013, around five million Americans were living with Alzheimer’s.

It is also projected that this number is to rise to a nearly three times larger number, fourteen million by 2050. Often, the changes that the brain undergoes can be years in the making before the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s become evident.

What is the next step in determining all of this?

There is much that scientists studying the disease do not yet understand when it comes to what is causing Alzheimer’s to arise or how Alzheimer’s affecting women more is so prevalent. Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association said, “There are enough biological questions pointing to increased risk in women that we need to delve into that and find out why.”
One researcher, Roberta Diaz Brinton, studies if menopause is a sort of precipice that makes women more susceptible to contracting Alzheimer’s. Also, her studies revolve around how estrogen affects the brain and whether or not this may be a factor in the susceptibility of menopausal women who may later encounter cognitive problems.
At the moment, Alzheimer’s disease is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States, most especially prevalent in the elderly between the ages of 65 to 85 years of age. The rates are only increasing thereby spiking rising concerns and questions about the disease among the public.
So, last month the Alzheimer’s Association brought together fifteen leading scientists to discuss women’s risk of getting the disease. Later in the summer, the association plans on beginning funding for the research to understand the missing pieces in Alzheimer’s effect on women more.


 

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