My husband suffers from dementia, and I’ve been taking care of him for almost 10 years. I’m starting to notice some memory problems in myself lately. Could it be related?
Dr. Amen's Answer:
New research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease suggests that if your spouse has dementia you are at significantly increased risk of developing it yourself.
After following more than 1,200 couples for 10 years, researchers at Utah State University found that wives who care for husbands with dementia developed the disorder themselves at almost four times the rate of wives whose spouses had healthy brain function.
It was even worse news for husbands caring for wives with dementia. They were nearly 12 times more likely to develop dementia than men who were married to women with normal cognitive function.
Does this mean that dementia is contagious? No! The reason for the increased risk lies in the tremendous amount of stress involved in caring for a loved one with the disease. Stress has been found to increase the risk for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, so it’s important to minimize it.
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