(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Studies show the average lifespan of a person diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease is between three and nine years, but new research shows having diabetes or high blood pressure may subtract years from that time frame.
Study results show after they were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, patients with diabetes were twice as likely to die sooner than those without. Those with high blood pressure were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to die sooner than those with normal blood pressure.
"Studies show that the average lifespan of a person diagnosed with Alzheimer's can be anywhere from three to nine years," study author Yaakov Stern, Ph.D., director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y., was quoted as saying. "For that person and their caregiver, every minute counts. Here we have two controllable factors that may drastically affect how long that person can survive."
Researchers monitored 323 patients who had no memory problems when first tested but were later diagnosed with dementia.
SOURCE: Neurology, 2008
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