High Homocysteine Levels May Double Risk of Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease

High Homocysteine Levels May Double Risk of Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, New Report Suggests

People with elevated levels of homocysteine in the blood had nearly double the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to a new report from scientists at Boston University. The findings, in a group of people participating in the long-running Framingham Study, are the first to tie homocysteine levels measured several years before with later diagnosis of AD and other dementias. The report, which appears in the February 14, 2002, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, provides some of the most powerful evidence yet of an association between high plasma homocysteine and later, significant memory loss.For more info, please visit http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2002/nia-13.htm