Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
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New dementia study rejects old theories
CAMBRIDGE, England, Aug 23, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A British Medical Research Council study on the incidence of dementia in England and Wales challenges three commonly held assumptions.
Contrary to widespread views, the study found no major difference in the incidence of dementia between men and women, no indication dementia incidence falls after a certain age and no difference in the incidence across five different sites -- three urban and two rural.
Unlike many previous studies, restricted to single sites, the research applied a single methodological approach to more than 13,000 people across five diverse sites.
The researchers divided study participants into two age groups: those from 65 to 74 years of age; and those who were 75 years of age and older.
The number of new dementia cases rises with age, but the study did not support a previous assumption that dementia incidence varied according to sex.
A suggestion in previous literature that incidence may fall after a certain, critical age was also not supported by the findings.
The study appears in the open access journal PLoS Medicine.