Men More Prone to Memory Impairment With Age

About a million aged Americans develop mild memory impairment every year, say researchers, citing a recent Mayo Clinic study of Minnesota residents. The number quoted by the study is over and above the estimated half million Americans who develop Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia.

The problem is slated to take on much larger proportions as the generation of baby boomers turns into senior citizens.

Dr. Ronald Petersen, who led the study, had defined mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, as a phase of transition between healthy aging and dementia. People with MCI suffer from impaired memory but do not have other problems like confusion, lack of attention or difficulty putting thoughts into words.

Dr. Peterson commented thus about the growing numbers at risk of dementia, “We’re seeing that in fact there's a much larger burgeoning problem out there.”

Dr. Ralph Nixon, a New York University psychiatrist and scientific adviser to the Alzheimer's Association, echoed the concerns raised by Dr. Peterson, stating, “We’re facing a crisis."

Petersen's federally funded study included approximately 1,600 people, aged 70 through 89, residing in Olmstead County, near the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Though all tested normal at the beginning of the study, more than 5 percent showed mild memory impairment a year later.

The mild impairment rate is two to three times larger than many researchers had expected, Petersen said. “It’s the iceberg under the tip,” agreed Dr. R. Scott Turner, incoming director of the memory disorders program at Georgetown University Medical Center.

The study also showed men to be about twice as vulnerable as women when it came to experiencing memory disorders. The fact that earlier studies have found more women with Alzheimer’s than men can be reconciled to the present findings on the premise that women outlive men and therefore have more chances of developing dementia.

"This is a very large and important issue for our country and for the world," said Duke University psychologist Brenda Plassman. An earlier study published by her corroborates the results of the Mayo study.

The prime goal now is to produce drugs to arrest the mild impairment of memory before Alzheimer's develops. Significant strides are already being taken in this direction.

Another study, presented at the conference on Sunday and published by the British medical journal The Lancet, reports that dementia rates in developing countries are considerably higher than hitherto thought.

The studies were reported at the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago.