Clinical Research on the abnormalities of calcium metabolism in dementia

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Bone mineral content and density were measured in 20 patients with dementia (7 men, aged 53-62,13 women, aged 54-82) of various causes such as Alzheimer type, vascular type, cognitive disorders, and unknown type by Dual Energy X-ray Absorptimetry (DEXA,XR-26, Norland).In 5 men patients out of 7 and in 9 women patients out of 13 the bone mineral density of lumbar spines and the total body mineral content were reduced below 1 standard deviation of normal range. Correlations between the degree of reduction in the bone mineral density and content and the scores on the revised version of Hasegawas Dementia Scale were not apparent.Judging from these data, abnormalities of calcium metabolism seemed to be one of the causes of dementia and/or cognitive disorders. We tried the effects of calcium supplement (300-600mg/day) on the improvement of memory and/or cognition in 5 patients with dementia over 1 year. In 2 patients calcium supplementbrought about on the marked improvement of memory and cognitive impairment within 3-6 months with the increased bone mineral density and content of the lumbar spines and the total body.These results suggested that (1) calcium not only regulates bone metabolism but also has a critical role on the brain function, (2) some types of a dementia are reversible, which is a function of the underlying pathology and of the availability and timely application of effective treatment.