Chinese scientists have found that chronic pain that accompanies arthritis or cancer, and lasts more than three months, significantly increases the risk of developing dementia.
A study was conducted in which the brain scans of more than 19 thousand volunteers were analyzed.
Participants also completed cognitive tasks.
Those who had multiple painful areas performed worse.
As a result, it turned out that when a person experiences pain for a long time, the hippocampus decreases, which ultimately leads to a deterioration in its functions.
It is worth adding that the hippocampus is a part of the brain that takes part in the formation of emotions, the organization of memory, and is responsible for learning.
It was also found that people with pain in five or more areas of the body had a hippocampus volume that was almost four times smaller. This is comparable to aging by 8 years.
The results of the scientists' work were published in an article in the journal PNAS .
