The link between bowel disease and dementia

IBD, characterised by abdominal pain and diarrhoea, seems to be associated with an increased risk of developing dementia. — TNS

Carried out by researchers at Taipei Veterans General Hospital and the National Yang-Ming University in Taipei, Taiwan, as well as the University of California, San Francisco, in the United States, a new study looked at data gathered from 1,742 adults aged 45 and above living in Taiwan, who had been diagnosed with one of two types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.

Following their diagnosis, the participants had their cognitive health assessed over a period of 16 years and compared to the cognitive health of 17,420 people who acted as a control group.