Vasectomy may be linked to dementia

[thecrow]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0703160485mar20,1,3775684.story?coll=chi-news-hed

As if men needed another reason to be skittish about a vasectomy.

A recent study by Northwestern University researchers revealed that men with a rare kind of dementia are more likely to have had a vasectomy than those who do not have cognitive problems. Called Primary Progressive Aphasia, or PPA, this dementia affects an individual's ability to express himself, impairing word recall and ability to understand words. The research was published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.

Clinical neuropsychologist Sandra Weintraub, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, became attuned to the possible correlation when one of her patients became near-obsessed that his PPA symptoms started in the years after his vasectomy. "I thought, 'That's a theory,' but it seemed so far-fetched," Weintraub said.

So imagine her surprise when, at a twice-yearly support group she holds for PPA (as well as another type of dementia called frontotemporal dementia) patients, this man, then 47, stood up and asked, "How many men in this room have PPA?" and nine hands went up? Then, he asked, "How many of you have had a vasectomy?" Eight hands raised in the air. Weintraub was impressed and gathered a team of researchers who looked at 47 men with PPA and 57 men free from cognitive impairment, all ranging in age from 55 to 80. The results: 40 percent of PPA patients had undergone a vasectomy, as opposed to just 16 percent of those without the illness.

"We thought it was a pretty striking difference," Weitraub said. Though the procedure may increase a person's chances of developing PPA, it doesn't mean it will lead to the early-onset dementia, which Weintraub described as particularly heart-wrenching, because it strikes people in their 40s and 50s.

[Fresh_Start]

1. What came first, the chicken or the egg?

EOM

[swag]

2. Since I first read about Wintraub's study, I started testing my memory

of words. It's pretty good still, as long as I'm not too drunk.

I look forward to the larger study, which she is conducting now.

And if I do go all aphasic, the lounge will be the second to know it.

[LiberalFighter]

15. I intentionally do whatever I can to exercise my mind

I try to do at least one Soduko puzzle a day.
Read the newspapers daily.
Have the tv on to at least hear my favorite comedies, news, history channel and others.
Work constantly on the computer either the internet doing research and of course DU and working on election related databases.

It is keeping me busy since retirement.

[paparush]

3. OMFG - that's horrible.......wait...what was I saying?

I got clipped in 2004...tick tick tick tick...

[swag]

8. Take heart: William Butler Yeats' vasectomy didn't affect his facility with words.

But it did, he said, give him a second adolescence.

Sigmund Freud also got snipped, and was lucid until the end, for better or worse.

[Richard D]

4. I can't remember

if I had one or not. Oh well.

[Deep13]

5. Correlation, but no cause and effect established.

Did the vasectomy cause the dementia?

Did something correlated with dementia make the guys more likely to seek sterility?

Is some additional factor not presently known contributing to both?

[Marnieworld]

7. exactly

I think I saw something about this earlier that was more alarmist than conclusive. My hubby was snipped in 2000 so I am concerned but not panicking.

[whoneedstickets]

22. The self selection problem is big..

..who gets Vasectomies?

Typically, its straight guys in stable, long term (married) relationships who choose sterilization to allow their wives to avoid the risks of birth control or a surgical tubal ligation procedure.

Clearly they the vasectomy -- dementia relationship is spurious since both could be caused by long term relationships to women.

[Marnieworld]

25. I am taking that last comment as a joke

It can also mean be gay or you'll go crazy.
I don't see the logic of the study's connection of the brain to the snipped vas deferens. The hormones are still in place, just one road of travel is cut off. It's probably funded by or supported by people who want everyone to have an endless amount of children. Talk about Dementia!

[TahitiNut]

16. Exactly. "Dementia may be linked to vasectomy" would be a better headline.

If only because the reader might be a bit nmore 'naturally' resistant to inferring causality. (Some readers, at least.)

[sinkingfeeling]

6. I always knew that the male brain wasn't located in the same spot as the

female brain! Take a little, bitty, snip, and your mind goes blank.

(Just kidding, you guys)

[BigEdMustapha]

9. Good thing I had my vasectomy reversed...

Maybe I should ask my health insurance to cover the reversal because we were not just trying to have another baby - we were trying to save me from dementia.

Don't mean to poke fun - this is concerning, especially for someone like me who relies on writing for my livelihood.

[unpossibles]

10. I have a good vocabulary, but am always doing this and have my whole life

and I want to get snipped. I guess it's worth it to me if there is a risk.

[central scrutinizer]

11. I got clipped in 1995 and I now have CRS

CRS: "Can't remember shit"

[yella_dawg]

12. I am so...

bolted?

threaded?

Oh yeah! Screwed!

[TlalocW]

13. I have a vasectomy

But I'm not worried about PPA. After all, some people have a way with words, and some people... uh... not have way, I guess?

TlalocW

[blondeatlast]

18. Mr. B and I don't talk that much anyway, but we do, well, communicate a whole lot!

:rofl:

[Lil Missy]

14. ROTFL! Oh, please! This is not flattering

[mike_c]

17. I don't understand....

:rofl:

[CrazyOrangeCat]

19. Huh???

Wha???

[shadowknows69]

20. In a related study it was learned that too many unwanted children

definitely causes dementia.

[blondeatlast]

21. ...

:thumbsup:

[Kelly Rupert]

23. I'd like to see it replicated with more than 47 people,

but it's interesting.

[theoldman]

24. I had a vasectomy 30 years ago so now you guys know why

my posts are so strange. Actually I think the conclusion that dementia is related to vasectomies is a lot of crap. Most people with dementia never were too bright in their youth. It just gets worse with age.

[thecrow]

26. Where do you get your statistics?

"Most people with dementia never were too bright in their youth."

Dementia is caused by many factors. I am sure that stupidity is not ine of them.

[mmonk]

27. .

:rofl:
On so many levels, this is amusing.