by KYW’s medical editor Dr. Brian McDonough
Just another chapter in the book ‘which is the stronger sex?’
A recent report in the journal Neurology finds that elderly men are more likely to suffer memory problems than women.
Over two thousand women were in the study and the researchers found that nearly 14 percent of the participants had mild cognitive impairment (mci) or memory issues. The rate was 1.5 times higher in men than in women.
People with mci have memory or thinking problems that are more serious than what’s associated with normal aging. Although not everyone who has mci develops Alzheimer’s disease, people with the impairment do often go on to develop it.
Of course you might be asking ‘why does this affect men?’ A physician from the Mayo Clinic has a theory: men may experience cognitive decline earlier in life but more gradually, whereas women may transition from normal memory directly to dementia at a later age but more quickly.
The study was funded by the US National Institute on Aging and a Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s disease research program.