Originally published July 10 2005
Early exposure to inflammatory disease multiplies Alzheimer's risk
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A new study of dementia in identical twins suggests that exposure to inflammation early in life quadruples one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, Eurekalert.org reports.
A new study of dementia in identical twins suggests that exposure to inflammation early in life quadruples one's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
If confirmed, the link would add inflammatory burden to the short list of preventable risk factors for Alzheimer's.
Previous studies by Gatz and others have shown that Alzheimer's is strongly genetic: If one twin has the disease, his or her identical twin has a 60 percent chance of developing it.
"People can plan a life span that will alter dementia risk," Gatz said.
Gatz's team, which included researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, sifted the 20,000 participants in the Swedish Twin Registry for the 109 "discordant" pairs where only one twin had been diagnosed with dementia.
Information about participants' education, activities and health history came from surveys they completed in the 1960s, when the registry was created, and from hospital discharge records.
"We're talking about gum disease, but it was measured by teeth lost or loose," Gatz said.
The conclusion is not that good oral health can prevent Alzheimer's, but that an inflammatory burden early in life, as represented by chronic gum disease, may have severe consequences later.
Gatz was inspired to focus on inflammation by the work of USC gerontologists Caleb Finch and Eileen Crimmins, who published a paper in the journal Science linking today's record life spans to lower rates of childhood infectious diseases, such as gum disease, flu, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis and other illnesses.
Such diseases are often preventable, raising hope for prevention of Alzheimer's.
"If what we're indexing with periodontal disease is some kind of inflammatory burden, then it is probably speaking to general health conditions," Gatz said.
There is a way it can hurt," she said.
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