Dementia Rates Higher in Men With Common Genetic Disorder Haemochromatosis

A study of more than 335,000 people of European ancestry in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease determined that men with the common genetic disorder haemochromatosis are more likely to develop dementia, reports EurekAlert . The researchers analyzed 2,890 men and women, aged 40 to 70 years, with two faulty haemochromatosis genes — and 25 of the 1,294 men with both faulty genes later developed dementia, which was 83 percent more common than for those without the genes. Moreover, iron accumulation was present in key brain regions linked to dementia in a subgroup of men with those two faulty genes. The same cohort also had a significantly higher likelihood of developing delirium, additionally linked to dementia, over a 10-year follow-up. "We know that a build-up of iron in the brain is linked to dementia in people without haemochromatosis," said Janice Atkins at the University of Exeter. "Our study is the first to show that men with the mutations for haemochromatosis may have a substantially increased risk of dementia, although the numbers of people who develop dementia are still low. We now need more research to establish whether the genetic condition causes brain decline, particularly as haemochromatosis is easy to treat, and could be a route to preventing some dementia."