The liaison between straits injury anddementiahas just uprise unattackable : A new discipline of 2.8 million people in Denmark , including those who had and had not get a traumatic mental capacity accidental injury ( TBI ) in their life-time , found that those with at least one TBI had a 24 percentage increased endangerment of dementedness , on average . The median diagnosing age was 81 .

TBIs pass off whenever an external force-out causes physical impairment to the brain , and theyrangefrom the meek and moderate to the severe . The dementia risk was slightly higher for severe TBIs . As carry , the figure of TBIs is positively correlate with risk .

TheNHSemphasize that this is aboutincreasedrisk after receiving a TBI , however . The absolute risk of developing dementia throughout your life is very small . Of this sample , only 5.1 per centum of those that had a TBI developed dementia , equate to 4.5 percent of non - TBI people that also develop dementia .

Writing inThe Lancet : Psychiatry , the squad explain how they get over the health of these people between 1999 and 2013 , and score off those who were diagnose with dementedness in that   period . They adjust for other health factors to stress and rein out   befuddle variables   that may have significantly contribute to the dementia diagnosing .

The researchers – from the University of Washington , Copenhagen University Hospital , and Aarhus University Hospital – also find that bewilder a TBI in your thirty is associated with a 37 percentage increased endangerment , compare to a 2 percent increased risk for those in their 50s . A TBI in your 20 is consort with a63 percentincreased risk .

Professor Jonathan Schott , a neurologist at University College London ( UCL ) not involved in the study , saidthat this tremendous sample size - based age group work “ put up perhaps the best grounds yet that traumatic brain injury is a risk factor for dementedness . ”

He admonish , however , that we still do n’t know what eccentric of head harm – such as sports - based concussions or traffic accident - relate accidental injury , for example – can be include in this risk judgment . ( It ’s worth note that contact fun are not that democratic in Denmark . )

Additionally , the population study all came from Denmark , which means the results ca n’t be applied to other countries with very different population groups . It ’s also an experimental study , so no direct cause - and - effect relationship between TBIs and dementedness can be definitively describe .

Dementia , a chronic or reformist syndrome affiliate with a decline in brain functioning , has a smorgasbord ofcauses , admit an abnormal bod - up of special protein in the nous . genetic science and environmental factors are also thought to wager a role .

Alzheimer ’s is the most common shape of dementia , give to60 - 70 percentof the 50 million people inhabit today with the condition .

Although dementia is associated with ageing , it ’s not a normal feature of beget elderly . However , as people are live longer , the number of people with dementedness is increase , and 10 million more citizenry are diagnose with the syndrome every twelvemonth .

There is no remedy and limited treatment methods available – unsurprisingly , the World Health Organization has made it a public health priority .

Concussions and other TBIs have long been linked to dementia , but earlier studies have found mixed results , and their methodology have often been blemished . This study , arguably the magnanimous of its kind , sure does a lot to corroborate the speculation , even if the underlie biological mechanisms remain somewhat problematical at present tense .