This sign of dementia appears earliest

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Researchers have discovered a sign of senile dementia that can appear 16 years before diagnosis. The sooner it is known about an incurable disease, the more time a person will have to prepare for it.

Every year, the number of victims of senile dementia on our planet increases, which is associated with an increase in life expectancy. Unfortunately, in most cases, early symptoms of dementia are ignored, because people take them for natural manifestations of aging. But the study showed that there is one specific sign of dementia that appears 16 years before the diagnosis.

The authors of the study found that victims of senile dementia often experience increased levels of pain. The scientists asked more than 9,000 adult volunteers, who were between 40 and 64 years old at the time of the study in 1991, about pain. Subsequently, 567 of them developed senile dementia. Analysis of their answers showed that about 16 years before the diagnosis, such people were more likely to complain of pain.

Scientists believe that brain changes associated with senile dementia begin decades before the diagnosis, so pain is unlikely to be a risk factor. Most likely, chronic pain is an early symptom that indicates the possible onset of dementia. Although, of course, there can be any number of reasons for pain, and senile dementia is hardly the most likely explanation for pain symptoms.