Women are at risk: Dementia affects more women than men, quickly becoming number one killer

New studies show women are affected by dementia in more than one way.

500,000 women are affected by dementia. This is compared to the 350,000 men who are afflicted. Dementia is quickly surpassing breast cancer or heart disease; it is becoming the newest disease that favors women.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Not only is dementia becoming the leading cause of death in women from the UK, women are also affected by the disease as carers for those who suffer.

It is the women of the family who are often quitting their jobs, taking time off and giving up their own lives to care for family members with dementia. Only to discover that they, too, will soon be living with the condition inside themselves.

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Sixty to 70 percent of dementia caretakers are unpaid females who receive little to no help from friends and other family.

"Wives caring for their husbands with severe dementia reported receiving less support from friends and family than husbands caring for their wives in similar circumstances," says the study, Women and Dementia: A Marginalised Majority. This often leaves the female carers feeling depressed, which it, itself, is a major risk factor for dementia.

"Women are carrying the responsibility of care for their loved ones, only later to be living with the condition," explains the report. "Women are dying from dementia but not before it has taken a considerable toll on minds and bodies."

According to the study, women are more than 2.5 times more likely to care for people with dementia than men, and then women over 60 are now twice as likely to get dementia than breast cancer.

People, especially women, are living longer, and "age is a major risk factor for the condition, and so it is now more prevalent, especially among women," according to The Guardian.

"Dementia is a life-shattering condition and represents a 'triple whammy' for women," said Hilary Evans, director of external affairs at Alzheimer's Research UK. "More women are dying of dementia, more women are having to bear the burden of care, while a disproportionate number of women currently working in dementia research are having to leave science."

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Compared to breast cancer and heart disease, spending on dementia research is very little.

"In recent decades we've seen increased investment in areas like cancer have a real impact, and we need to emulate that success for dementia," expressed Evans. "Only through research can we find ways to treat and prevent dementia, and transform the lives of the hundreds of thousands affected."

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