Gene Variant May Double Alzheimer's Risk for Women: Study | WPN World People News

Having a copy of a certain gene variant increases women's risk for Alzheimer's disease much more than it does for men, a new study indicates.

Stanford University researchers analyzed data from more than 8,000 people, most older than 60, who were tracked over a long period of time at about 30 Alzheimer's centers across the United States.

Overall, having a copy of the ApoE4 gene variant increased the risk of Alzheimer's. But further analysis showed that women with a copy of this gene variant were about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's as those who did not have the variant. Men with the ApoE4 variant had only a slightly increased risk of developing Alzheimer's, according to the study.

The findings could help improve understanding of the underlying causes of Alzheimer's disease.

Expert noted that women are much more likely than men to develop Alzheimer's, and that this difference is only partly due to the fact that women tend to live longer than men.

The findings also suggest that doctors need to take different approaches when dealing with women and men.

Between 5 million and 6 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and that number could more than double by mid-century, according to experts.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services