The University of Copenhagen has discovered a link between those patients that suffer from the rosacea skin condition and Alzheimer’s disease. Patients were also found more likely to suffer from dementia.
The study published in the journal Annals of Neurology has found that there’s a 25 percent higher risk to suffer from dementia and Alzheimer while suffering from the skin condition.
The risks are most likely found in women and in patients diagnosed with rosacea at a hospital or dermatologist.
A link among mental health and skin conditions
Rosacea is known as a long-term skin condition that is characterized by redness on the face, small dilated blood vessels on the skin along with papules, pustules and swelling.
The National Rosacea Society indicates that about 16 million Americans suffer from Rosacea, a disease that only has treatments but not a cure.
Previous studies have linked the skin condition with Parkinson’s disease, stating that patients with rosacea were also more likely to suffer from the degenerative disorder of the nervous system.
The research was headed by Dr. Alexander Egeberg from the University of Copenhagen, who wanted to investigate if in fact skin conditions could be linked to mental illness.
The study compared data from Danish citizens between 1997 and 2012, in those ranges there were 5,591,718 citizens over the legal age that suffer from rosacea. The investigation studied the patients from those years until December 2012.
From the original numbers, the study found that around 99,040 danish citizens developed dementia in the year range while 29,193 patients were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Egeberg and his team also found that women that suffer from the skin condition were 28 percent most likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Men had only a 16 percent risk of suffering the disease.
Patients that suffer from Rosacea over 60 years old were 20 percent likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s as well.
Even though the percentages are high Dr. Egeberg explains that having rosacea doesn’t always mean suffering from a mental disease.
“There are certain mechanistic overlaps between rosacea and Alzheimer’s disease that might explain the observed association, yet the pathogenic links between these conditions are still unclear. Having rosacea doesn’t necessarily mean that the person will also develop dementia” Said Dr. Egeberg in the published article.
With this investigation, the team of researchers hopes to give more awareness to the links between skin and mental disorders.
Source: Online Library