Senile dementia and sex
Frequency of sexual contact predicted dementia risk
Denis Strigun, Naked Science
Since there are no reliable ways to treat dementia, the fight against it relies on early diagnosis and prevention. It is known that markers of cognitive decline in old age can serve as levels of physical and sociality of activity, for example, walking speed and preferences in the field of humor. It is less clear how sexual life is associated with the risk of illness. Until now, such works have studied individual cognitive processes, in particular working memory. To evaluate the parameter comprehensively, the authors of the new article used the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Scale III (ACE-III) – this technique also allows you to quickly evaluate attention, speech and visual-spatial functions.
73 healthy volunteers with an average age of 61.6 years took part in the testing. In addition to ACE-III, they filled out a questionnaire about their general health and lifestyle and indicated how often they had masturbated, petted or had sex in the last 12 months ("never", "monthly" or "weekly"). As sociodemographic parameters, the authors considered age, gender and level of education. The key functional variable was the presence of diseases of the cardiovascular system - they are associated with both cognitive and sexual status. In addition, the respondents' quality of life was examined using the Depression scale (CES-D) and the CASP-19 questionnaire.
The results showed that only women (ten people) reported a lack of sexual experience in the last year. At the same time, the monthly frequency was less common among men – in 34.6 percent of cases. The most numerous was the subgroup of "weeklies", in which representatives of different sexes were distributed approximately equally. Complete restriction of sex well predicted a decrease in the overall ACE-III score, including, like the average frequency, a deterioration in speech activity. The monthly indicator was weakly correlated with the decline in visual-spatial functions. Separately for memory, attention and speech, the connection with intimate life was not found.
According to scientists, education, depression and cardiovascular diseases did not affect the trend. The findings complement past observations that the persistence of sexual activity in old age may predict a higher overall index of cognitive abilities. Curiously, only women reported the lack of sex in the study. This may be explained, for example, by ethical considerations: according to a number of studies, they are less likely than men to talk about intimate life after the formation of a new marriage or the death of a spouse. Along with the biochemical correlates of the effect, it is planned to take this into account in further work.
Article Wright et al. Frequent Sexual Activity Predicts Specific Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.
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18.07.2017