MIAMI: New research claims that calcium supplements may be associated with an increased risk of dementia in older women who have had a stroke or other signs of cerebrovascular disease.
Cerebrovascular disease is a group of disorders that affect blood flow in the brain. The research is published today.
The study involved 700 women between the ages of 70 and 92 and living in Sweden. None of the participants had dementia at the start of the study. The researchers did some memory and thinking tests and checked whether the women took calcium supplements and repeated the tests five years later.
The results indicated that the women who took calcium supplements were twice as likely to develop dementia compared to women who did not take supplements, but only if they already had cerebrovascular disease, such as having had a stroke. Overall, 14 out of the 98 women who took supplements developed dementia. Women without a history of stroke or areas of damage to the brain associated with increased risk of dementia (known as white matter lesions) had no increased risk of dementia from taking calcium supplements.