According to a new study from the University of Washington School of Medicine there could be an association between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and three types of degenerative eye diseases.
The study included nearly 3,900 people aged 65 and older who were not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the start of the study that was part of the “Adult Changes in Thought database”. Over the course of the study 792 of them went on to be diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease.
This project started in 1994 by Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute researcher Dr. Eric Larson. This team of researchers, from the database noted that patients who were suffering from age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy had a 40 to 50 percent more chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who did not have any of these eye diseases.
ophthalmologists should be aware that there is a higher risk of dementia in persons with these eye conditions and patients presenting with them should be routinely checked for dementia, memory or cognitive loss.
See the link....