General anesthesia for the elderly boosts the risks of dementia by more than a third, according to a study by French doctors.
Researchers led by Francois Sztark at the University of Bordeaux in southwestern France analyzed data from a long-term study into cognitive decline covering 9,300 elderly people in three French cities.
The volunteers — average age 75 — were interviewed when they were recruited into the study and then two, four, seven and 10 years afterwards.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透
The data, which was released on May 31, showed a link between the onset of dementia and a general anesthetic that had been administered two or three years before.
Those who had received general anesthesia were 35 percent likelier to develop dementia symptoms by the next follow-up interview compared with counterparts who had not had general anesthetic.
Previous work has already highlighted a condition called post-operative cognitive dysfunction, or POCD, in which an elderly patient who undergoes major surgery also goes into mental decline relatively soon afterward.
The reasons for this, though, are unclear. Some experiments suggest various anesthetics inflame neural tissues, causing protein plaques and tangles to develop that are precursors of Alzheimer’s disease.
(AFP)
年長者全身麻醉將增加失智風險逾三分之一,法國醫師所做的研究指出。
法國西南部波爾多大學專家史塔克領導的研究人員,對一項涵蓋法國三個城市、九千三百名年長者有關認知衰退的長期研究進行分析。
這些平均年齡七十五歲的志願者在他們被招募參與研究時接受訪談,二、四、七和十年後再次受訪。
這份五月三十一日公布的資料顯示,失智的發病與兩到三年前所做的全身麻醉有關。
那些接受全身麻醉者到下次的後續訪談前,相較於沒有接受全身麻醉者,出現失智症狀的機率多出百分之三十五。
此前的研究成果已凸顯稱為「手術後認知功能障礙」或POCD的症狀,即經歷重大手術的年長病患,此後相對快速地也進入心智衰退狀態。
儘管箇中原因不明,但若干實驗顯示,許多麻醉劑會讓神經組織發炎,引發蛋白斑塊與糾結的生成,這些是阿茲海默氏症的前兆。
(法新社/翻譯:魏國金)
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
It’s no secret that Japanese people have a deep affection for noodles. Like in the rest of East Asia, noodles are an important staple food, second only to rice. Japanese people have enjoyed noodles for over 1,000 years. The first noodles came from China and were introduced around 800 CE. As time passed, noodles in Japan not only became widespread but also developed some unique Japanese characteristics. The three most popular types of noodles in Japan are ramen, soba, and udon. Ramen, typically made from wheat flour, is usually thin and firm. The dough is kneaded and left to
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its