CerebrumEng

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In this short excerpt below taken from BBC Brazil reports a study in England that was made for the elderly, and reached the conclusion that Alzheimer's patients with other infections, accelerates memory loss.
A British study suggests that infections and inflammatory processes can accelerate memory loss in patients suffering from Alzheimer's.

The research, published in the latest edition of the journal Neurology, says that people who had respiratory infections, gastrointestinal or just bruises caused by falling recorded an increase in the level of an inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF, its acronym in English). The excess of the substance may result in worsening in the context of Alzheimer's and encourage the advancement of the disease.
Researchers at the University of Southampton followed 222 elderly, mean age 83 years and diagnosed with the disease over six months. Scientists have observed that among the participants, 110 developed a total of 150 infections in areas such as the lungs, urinary tract, intestines and stomach. The results indicate that patients who had more than one of these infections during the period of one semester had doubled the rate of cognitive impairment compared to those without infection. According to scientists, this may occur because infections increase the level of TNF in the blood, which would affect the acceleration of memory loss. The results indicated that patients who already had high levels of TNF in the blood at the beginning of the research - which could indicate chronic inflammation - had cognitive impairment four times more accelerated than patients who did not have inflammation.

"The worse the infection, the worst impact on memory," said Clive Holmes, who led the study.

"Some may think that people who suffer cognitive impairment at a faster rate are more susceptible to infections or injuries, but found no evidence indicating that patients with more severe dementia are at greater risk of infections early in our research," said Holmes.