New research suggests that premature aging is found to be striking the brains of those people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. It is unclear if it is both the drug and the virus, or one or the other, is to blame for contributing to the aging. They are sure that the blood flow in the patients with HIV is almost the same of those people who are uninfected and are 15 to 20 years older.
“This infection’s effects on the brain a significant source of concern for the graying of the AIDS patient community,” says study author Dr. Beau Ances who is an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. He went on to say that “some are coming forward to discuss concerns about problems they’re having with memory and cognitive functions and these patients are surviving to their senior years.”
Over 50 years old are an estimated 14-18 percent of all AIDS patients in the U.S. People over the age of 20 by the year 2015, will account for over half of all AIDS patients. And older people face the highest rates of new infections. In a study where the average age and education level were similar, researchers used MRI scans to study the blood flow in the brains of 26 HIV-infected people and 25 other people who weren’t infected. Researchers found lower blood flow in the brains of the HIV patients.
