The December 16, 2009 Journal of the American Medical Association featured an article on a long-term study of elderly individuals who have not been diagnosed with dementia. The study, led by researchers from BUSM and the Framingham Heart Study, focuses on the association between the protein hormone leptin and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
The researchers found that those subjects who had higher baseline levels of Leptin circulating in their blood system also had a significantly reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Individuals in the lowest quartile of gender-specific leptin levels had an absolute Alzheimer’s risk of 25%, while persons in the highest quartile had only a 6% risk over a 12-year follow-up period.
