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Study shows dementia more common in older adults with vision issues
- lakomen 3y agoI find that very questionable. Name 70+ year olds who have perfect eyesight. How many do you know?
- taeric 3y agoNeat 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 3y ago"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 3y agoThat 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.
- dsego 3y agoI have the same ailment. I did find that wearing ear plugs to concerts helps me filter out the noise and better hear and understand people around me talking.
- dbcurtis 3y agoYes, well-known. Likely an “ear teaming” issue. Good binaural hearing is very important to filtering speech.
- m_kos 3y agoWhile 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.2023.1200448/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2023.1200...
- yamrzou 3y agoWhen it comes to the brain, I don't think causation (vs. correlation) matters that much. The brain is an association machine.
- m_kos 3y agoTo clarify my earlier comment, if your goal is to prevent or delay dementia, then you would want to know whether dementia causes poor vision or poor vision causes dementia (via reduced visual stimulation or reduced engagement in cognitively engaging activities that require good vision like reading, some sports, etc.). This is because there may be effective interventions and strategies for dealing with vision impairments.
- yamrzou 3y agoYes. What I meant is that in the absence of such perfect knowledge (whether dementia causes poor vision or poor vision causes dementia), which is usually the case[1], we can pursue these strategies anyway because the nervous system learns by association and by introducing a perturbation to its inputs, it could adapt toward our goal. [1] Because the brain and body is a huge complex system and it's hard to untangle cause and consequence: There is usually no single cause and a lot of feedback cycles where the consequence could reinforce its cause.
- mirekrusin 3y agoSadly probably the biggest short term impact it’ll have is in entering insurance models.
- reso 3y agoDementia 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.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago[flagged]
- suzzer99 3y agoNevermind 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.
- morninglight 3y agoWe have seen people bounce back from early signs of dementia after cataract surgery.
- willcipriano 3y agoI'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 3y agoThere 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.
- sergioisidoro 3y agoAfter 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?
- 5822130027 3y ago[dead]
- gg82 3y agoOr is poor vision, hearing, smell a sign of poor brain health?
- pbmonster 3y agoCertainly not exclusively. We have a pretty thorough understanding of vision loss with age, and almost all of it is caused in the optics part of the system (that's why you can compensate with glasses or eye surgery for such a long time), not in the optic nerve or after it. Hearing is pretty similar, no idea about smelling.
- bordercases 3y agoDid 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 3y agoAt first glance, yes, and that reduces the hazard ratio, but a substantial gap remains.
- StevePerkins 3y agoThe 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 3y ago[deleted]
- anonuser123456 3y agoI 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 3y agoI 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.
- JeremyNT 3y agoI agree, and to me it hints at a couple of possibilities... Perhaps they are receiving sub-standard vision care (and are thus unable to get updated eyeglass prescriptions, cataract surgery, etc), and this might be associated with other forms of sub-standard care. Or perhaps a person suffering from dementia is less likely to notice and/or less able to pursue treatment for their own declining vision...
- nsenifty 3y agoUndiagnosed 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.
- m463 3y agoI'm pretty sure you could say this other ways, like "dementia more common in older adults with erectile dysfunction" Problems with poor circulation or arteriosclerosis correlate with dementia and also correlate with erectile dysfunction. And then there was the study that said folks who take medicine for erectile dysfunction stave off dementia: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/viagra-associated-reduced-risk-alzheimers-disease https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/viagra-...
- tbrownaw 3y agoBut that's not saying the same thing differently. It's saying something separate - and not examined in this study - that looks like it could plausibly generalize together with this one.
- kwertyoowiyop 3y agohttps://eyewiki.org/Visual_Variant_of_Alzheimer%E2%80%99s_Disease https://eyewiki.org/Visual_Variant_of_Alzheimer%E2%80%99s_Di...
- karaterobot 3y agoNot addressed in this article, but the findings sort of imply to my naive and speculating mind that being blind might lead to increased risk of dementia. Congenitally or otherwise. I had not heard that, and I feel like it might have become folk wisdom by now if it were true.
- steve76 3y ago[dead]
- ablyveiled 3y agoMy unprofessional opinion is that these are both explained by a third variable, excessive consumption of carbohydrates, starches especially. (It also explains the correlation between poor dental health and dementia). Myopia is known to be promoted by excessive carbohydrate consumption.
- rdruxn 3y agoDo you have any evidence to support any of these claims
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoI will interject that high insulin levels are linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s and so is diabetes. But it might be more than just the carbohydrates and also name Balance of omega-3 and omega six. https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/how-can-i-prevent-dementia/diabetes#:~:text=Beta%20amyloid%20plaques%2C%20which%20build,the%20risk%20factors%20for%20dementia https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/how-can-i-prevent-dem....
- ablyveiled 3y agoI am personally skeptical of the role of omega-3 and omega-6 in dementia, at least, one should never take these as supplements. It is a medical fact that they are highly unstable and basically worthless after only a day or so on the shelf, if not harmful. One should only look to studies of genetically identical populations (you should be able to find one about nigerians in america) that acquire dementia at a high rate to observe that something about our capitalistically engineered environments is principally to blame. raypeat.com
- ablyveiled 3y agoIt's all a google away.
- FollowingTheDao 3y agoSelenium may be the common denominator. It helps recycle glutathione via the GPX enzymes. So it stimulates antioxidant defense. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1042893/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.10428... https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/34038/20211019/around-76-adults-deficient-mineral-associated-dementia-selenium-slow-cognitive.htm https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/34038/20211019/around-...
- MisterBastahrd 3y agoIsn't there another study that says that adults with hearing issues have a higher chance at dementia. And yet another with adults who spend more time isolated? Almost as if the issue might be isolation due to a diminishing amount of sensory input from external sources.
- nextlevelwizard 3y agoNo doubt. I have noticed as my vision has gotten worse that sometimes I just don't pay attention to what is in front of me. At times it takes a lot of effort to parse out the blurry image so I just let it all meld. In TV shows and movies where I used to study the background sometimes just turn into basically radio plays where I just get the gist of where the characters are, but don't have the energy to pay attention to details. This has also affected my reading. I am much more likely to search for a Youtube video or other audio explanation of a subject than read it myself - since again reading for long periods takes a lot more concentration when the text is blurry/shifting around. There is no way to wont lead to mental degradation over time.
- shawndrost 3y agoIf you don't mind my asking -- how old are you?
- nextlevelwizard 3y agomid 30s
- angrais 3y agoHave you looked into correction vision, e.g., glasses or lens? I wear a pair and have minimal problems when wearing them. When they're off I would likely experience similar to yourself.
- nextlevelwizard 3y agoI do wear glasses and they do help, but it is not enough. I just got new glasses couple months back. Everything is fine when I wake up, but as the day progresses (I guess) my eyes more tired and everything gets blurrier and blurrier.
- derivative7 3y agoHave you tried watching movies with audiodescription?
- ddmf 3y agoMy reading vision has gotten worse over the last 5 or so years as I've gotten older - and when I'm trying to look at something closely, like I used to be able to do, I do feel for a moment like it's not my vision but my brainpower reducing. There is definite confusion.
- ekianjo 3y ago> Dementia was defined as scoring 1.5 SDs or more below the mean in 1 or more cognitive domains, an AD8 Dementia Screening Interview Score indicating probable dementia, or diagnosed dementia. As expected they did not diagnose clinical dementia so the findings are highly debatable. More people need to look at actual metrics used instead of the clickbaity headlines. Also if you want to imply any kind of causation the study needs to be much longer. Here they started the study after people were in their 70s which is fairly late already and you are much more likely to have bias or random people having cognition decline no matter what.
- Mammux 3y agoMaybe the widespread ANTI-VEGF treatments that people are getting for wet AMD are a contributing factor. VEGF is a known protective mechanism against dementia, and the common ANTI-VEGF medications have been shown to enter the brain.
- mkl 3y agoHad trouble understanding this. To save others some searching: AMD = age-related macular degeneration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeneration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macular_degeneration Anti-VEGF = Anti-(vascular endothelial growth factor) therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-VEGF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-VEGF