Appetite hormone 'the key to dementia prevention'

There are currently over 700,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia, a figure expected to soar to over one million in the next 15 years, but specialists claim that the human body may already hold the key to defeating the condition.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) entitled Association of Plasma Leptin Levels with Incident Alzheimer Disease and MRI Measures of Brain Ageing claims that an appetite hormone may be the key to creating new preventative treatments.

Experts have found that circulating leptin is associated with a reduced incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease and with cerebral brain volume in asymptomatic older adults, which could pave the way for new therapies to be formulated.

The study included 785 people, whose levels of leptin and incidence of dementia were monitored over a period of eight years.

In this time, 111 participants developed incident dementia, 89 of whom had Alzheimer's, with higher leptin levels associated with a lower risk of incidence of the mental problem.

The research has been hailed by a spokeswoman for the Alzheimer's Research Trust, who described it as "really interesting".

"Leptin is a hormone that's involved with controlling appetite. Previous research has shown that obesity, especially in midlife, are associated with an increased risk of dementia and because leptin is involved in appetite, maybe it's got a role to play there," she pointed out.

The representative told health insurance customers that although more work needs to be done to work out whether the study can be relevant on a wider scale, it has shown great promise so far.

She stated: "The study needs to be confirmed in other populations, but we hope that it will open up the way for more research to find out if it can be used to help develop new treatments and ways to prevent dementia."

Posted by Louise Jones

Find out about our Health Insurance Plans. 

Adfero Ltd provides live and tailored breaking industry news for Chartis Direct. All industry news is prepared by Adfero Ltd and as such does not represent the views or opinions of Chartis Direct a trading name of UNAT Direct Insurance Management Limited.

© Adfero Ltd 2008