[HN Gopher] Study shows dementia more common in older adults wit...
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Study shows dementia more common in older adults with vision issues
Author : elorant
Score : 68 points
Date : 2023-08-14 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.michiganmedicine.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.michiganmedicine.org)
| nsenifty wrote:
| Undiagnosed cataract is a big thing in developing countries.
| Vision loss from cataract is gradual so many older people don't
| realize they're turning blind.
| bordercases wrote:
| Did they control for blood sugar or diabetes incidence? (I'll
| check)
|
| The link between diabetes and retinopathy is conclusive. Between
| diabetes and dementia or Alzheimer's, prospective.
| anonuser123456 wrote:
| At first glance, yes, and that reduces the hazard ratio, but a
| substantial gap remains.
| mirekrusin wrote:
| Sadly probably the biggest short term impact it'll have is in
| entering insurance models.
| reso wrote:
| Dementia is also highly correlated with hearing loss. It's
| intuitive to me that the mind could deteriorate when it loses
| touch with the outside world. It seems possible that dementia is
| much less a material deterioration in the brain than a condition
| that takes place when the brain loses its normal sensory stimuli.
| Paul-Craft wrote:
| Anosmia (loss of sense of smell) is also linked to dementia.
| [0]
|
| I wonder if it's a coincidence that declining vision, hearing,
| and smell are all linked to dementia, while the optic,
| vestibulocochlear, and olfactory nerves make up 3 of the 12
| cranial nerves, [1] meaning they emerge directly from the
| brain.
|
| ---
|
| [0]: https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/loss-smell-linked-alzheimers-
| co...
|
| [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranial_nerves
| morninglight wrote:
| We have seen people bounce back from early signs of dementia
| after cataract surgery.
| nsenifty wrote:
| Yes, this was my dad. He went from very healthy, active and
| social to suddenly aloof and reserved. People from his
| generation in India have a thing against regular medical
| checkups and only visit doctors when something is wrong. The
| visual degradation from his cataract was so gradual and
| severe but he failed to notice that. After I dragging him to
| a GP, he got his diagnosis in 5 minutes. He had a cataract
| surgery the same week and he was like 10 years younger
| instantaneously.
| hbarka wrote:
| The implied correlation and statistics here feels suspicious.
| Can they also say "we have seen people bounce back from early
| signs of dementia after getting eyeglasses" ?
| willcipriano wrote:
| I'd bet older people who have trouble seeing are more likely
| to be depressed and depressed people score higher (more
| likely to be) on dementia tests.
|
| I've seen tons of things like family and active social lives
| helping with the disease but I bet it's just negative emotion
| and depressive symptoms make it worse rather than those
| things make it better.
| abracadaniel wrote:
| There has to be more to this, since blind and deaf people
| exist and function in society. There may be direct
| correlations here, but there are definitely more factors
| involved.
| DANmode wrote:
| Fuzzier stimuli, fuzzier adapted reality...
|
| Yikes.
|
| Makes one wonder what one has unconsciously assimilated to.
| ShadowBanThis01 wrote:
| [flagged]
| suzzer99 wrote:
| Nevermind all the people with long covid who still have brain
| fog, or the people who just flat out died from covid. No
| let's worry instead about some made up side effect of the
| vaccine that THEY don't want you to know about.
| sergioisidoro wrote:
| After hearing Andrew Huberman talk about the relationship between
| vision and our dopamine system, I would not be surprised if we
| start finding more correlations of mental health with vision.
|
| But there's also the recent findings inversely correlating myopia
| with amount of time spent outdoors (and even some reduction in
| myopia for people who start spending more time outdoors). So
| vision could just be a proxy for sedentism?
| taeric wrote:
| Neat to see. It seems to align with expectations, in that many
| vision troubles are not with the eyes.
|
| That said, I am surprised that the vision troubles you will have
| from cataracts is the same. I was originally skeptical of the
| opening claim that many vision issues are preventable, but seeing
| that surgical corrections has a positive impact does show this.
| rqtwteye wrote:
| "in that many vision troubles are not with the eyes."
|
| I think it's the same with hearing. I have massive troubles
| understanding people in loud environments but on tests my
| hearing was above average. Seems my brain (in this case I think
| my autistic traits) just doesn't process the input very well.
| taeric wrote:
| That would be my expectation. Would be neat to see a
| comparative study with hearing interventions and how they
| impact dementia. Would put even more importance on quality
| hearing aides.
| StevePerkins wrote:
| The language in this article is a bit confusing to me:
|
| > _" In a sample of nearly 3,000 older adults who took vision
| tests and cognitive tests during home visits, the risk of
| dementia was much higher among those with eyesight problems -
| including those who weren't able to see well even when they were
| wearing their usual eyeglasses or contact lenses."_
|
| Is this saying that people even with CORRECTED vision problems
| still have the same dementia risks? So many comments in this
| thread are linking dementia to lack of visual stimulus. But if
| the risks apply even when the vision impairment is corrected,
| then doesn't imply some deeper relationship?
|
| I suppose you could argue that corrected vision isn't corrected
| 24/7, with glasses or contacts that are periodically removed. But
| that point really doesn't feel satisfying.
|
| LASIK surgery has been widely popular for just over 20 years now.
| I'd be interested to see how permanently corrected vision
| factored into this study, and how the results might change over
| time as we have more elderly who underwent LASIK at younger ages.
| [deleted]
| anonuser123456 wrote:
| I would speculate they are measuring the decline in visual
| processing in the brain and optic nerve in this case, not the
| impactful of poor sight on cognitive decline.
| dynisor wrote:
| I read it differently. It sounds to me like it's saying that it
| was people "who weren't able to see well when they were using
| their prescription lenses." As in, they have prescription
| lenses, but their vision is not actually corrected.
| iwanttocomment wrote:
| This is almost certainly referring to seniors who continued to
| wear corrective lenses but had cataracts hindering their
| vision, as is extremely common in old age. While LASIK can be
| an excellent long-term solution for myopia, it is not a
| preventative measure against cataracts.
| m_kos wrote:
| While the direction of causality is (usually) hard to determine
| based on observational data, given that we observe a similar
| effect in individuals with hearing impairments and, AFAIR, in
| people with limited mobility, it seems that decreased sensory
| stimulation plays a role in the development of some dementias.
| There is also a recent pilot study about a positive effect of
| olfactory stimulation [1].
|
| https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1200...
| yamrzou wrote:
| When it comes to the brain, I don't think causation (vs.
| correlation) matters that much. The brain is an association
| machine.
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