Women are more likely to get Alzheimer’s disease than men, but the reason for this is still not fully understood. About 17 percent of women in the U.S. over the age of 65 have Alzheimer’s disease, while only about 9 percent of men are diagnosed with it. 3.4 million of the 5.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease are female.
There are several theories as to why women are more at likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Age is the biggest risk factor for the disease, so the reason for this may be as simple as the fact that women tend to live longer than men. Another theory predicts that the changes in the brain that happen after menopause many make women more vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease. A third theory predicts that the decline in hormones in women’s bodies as they age may also play a part in the development of the disease. Finally, there is a theory that a gene on the X chromosome may be attributed for the increase of risk in women.
Much more research is needed before scientists will be able to say why women tend to be more at risk for Alzheimer’s disease than men, but for now we know that statistics show that the female population is more likely to develop the disease than the male population.
