Study: Women Have Better Memory Than Men As They Age
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – In a win for women in the battle of the sexes, researchers have found that women have better memories than men as they age.
The findings were the result of a study on Alzheimer's disease. According to Medical News Today, researchers performed memory testing on people of both sexes between the ages of 30 and 95.
Researchers found that, on average, memory performance went down with age for both sexes. However, men showed a more rapid decline – with men aged 40 having worse memory than women at age 60.
These findings came as no surprise to women we talked to.
"I believe women's memory is really good when it comes to anything we really need to remember," said Debbie Coulumbe. "The men, they forget a lot of things on purpose."
The study singled out a gene, APOE ε4, known being a risk factor for Alzheimer's. Participants in the study were grouped into categories of whether they carried the gene or not.
Unfortunately for men, the presence of the gene did not excuse the more rapid memory loss.
"The memory decline that people often experience as they get older is usually not an indicator of underlying Alzheimer's pathology," said Mayo Clinic researcher Dr. Clifford Jack to HealthDay News. "So it in no way means you're inevitably going to become demented."
Men we talked to came up with a few reasons as to why their memory deteriorates faster.
"I think men have more to think about than women do," said 54-year-old William Pinkney.
However, in good news for both sexes, the research seems to suggest that memory lapses do not mean the onset of Alzheimer's.
"What this shows very clearly is that memory and brain volume are declining years before any amyloid is present," said UC Davis professor of neurology Dr. Charles DeCarli in an editorial published along with the study.
The study was first published in the journal JAMA Neurology.
