Subtle feelings of loneliness might warn of impending Alzheimer's disease in older folks, a new study suggests.
Healthy seniors with elevated brain levels of amyloid -- a type of protein fragment associated with Alzheimer's disease -- seem more likely to feel lonely than people with lower levels of amyloid, researchers found.
"For people who have high levels of amyloid -- the people truly at high risk for Alzheimer's -- they were 7.5 times more likely to be lonely than non-lonely," said lead researcher Dr. Nancy Donovan. She's director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
