What can be done to reduce dementia risk?
My mum had suffered from dementia later in life. My aunty on my father’s side suffered with Alzheimer’s.
You might be concerned as you get older you and want strong cognitive health.
There are things you can do to reduce your dementia risk if it’s in your family history.
The things you can’t change are your age, genes and family history which are sometimes referred to ask ‘non-modifiable’ risk factors.
These suggestions are taken from academic research and advocacy organisations in this field and are summarised below:
So if you concerned, what can you do?
I’ve been studying this recently and learned there are things we can do to help reduce our risks and give us the best chance of avoiding a dementia diagnosis or delaying it.
These things include:
– Managing your weight – this helps avoid insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure – two modifiable risk factors which are associated with dementia – especially in midlife.
– Being physically active – regular physical activity, exercise, standing up from your desk and going for a walk, gardening, looking after the kids, ironing, taking the stairs – and incorporating as much activity into your routine as possible is associated with less dementia risk.
Consistently get your steps in. More physical activity – the smaller the associated risk to a greater extent.
– Eating well – the Mediterranean diet and ‘DASH’ diet are anti-inflammatory, rich in Omega-3, antioxidants, fruits, vegetables, fish with little processed meat.
These styles of eating are thought to be neuroprotective.
– Educational attainment – those with higher attainment, or on-going, or returning to learning tend to be less at risk.
Keep yourself challenged and engaged at work or study, use your brain throughout your life.
– Keep your cholesterol in check – watch your cholesterol levels. Dementia is associated with plaque-type build up in the brain, and stroke risk is associated with dementia.
– Quit smoking – wise for so many reasons however improved cardiovascular health helps to reduce stroke risk, improve oxygenation and reduce inflammation.
– Moderate alcohol consumption – chronic drinking is associated with neuronal damage, problems with memory and reduced brain volume.
– Social connections – again, also important for so many reasons such as fulfillment and connection.
This may be family, friendships, work, volunteering and community and civic activities.
– Avoid hitting your head – if you’re older and more frail make sure there are no hazards around you could hit your head quite sharply on – enough to create a brain injury.
Or if you play sports, wear protective headgear. If you do get a bash get yourself checked out. Traumatic brain injury is associated with dementia risk.
– Get a hearing aid – more recent in the research. Deafness / hearing loss is associated with dementia risk – it’s thought that untreated deafness means we miss out on the rewards of friendship.
Those feel good feelings we get with our best mates for example.
This lack of fulfillment can affect our mental state where we stop looking after ourselves and if untreated the risk goes up.
Additionally, the brain diverts resources into hearing which may leave less available for memory and attention.
– Get good sleep – during deep sleep, the brain activates the glymphatic system, which helps clear out beta-amyloid and tau—the proteins that build up in Alzheimer’s disease. Disrupted sleep may impair this clearance.
Final words:
If you have a family member who suffers from dementia, I know from first-hand experience how heartbreaking this can be. There are organisations out there who can help:
Try the Alzheimer’s Society – link here. or Dementia UK – link here.
Looking after yourself when you’re caring for someone with dementia should be a priority and you don’t need to suffer alone.
If you’re concerned about your own risk of dementia then the above and below links will be a good starting point for you to undertake your own learning about it.
I would also recommend the US-based Alzheimer’s Association for some great information and resources – link here.
A lot of the research is about associations in the data (also known as ‘correlations’). It’s difficult to definitively say about cause and effect.
This is due to the nature of the subject matter, the individuals, the length of follow-up and ethical considerations.
Some of the observations in the studies occur at the population level and it’s hard to generalise at an individual level.
Lastly, even if you feel you have factors that increase your risk – it is not a given you will suffer from dementia.
As an example, there are individuals at risk who have been tested genetically, or show positive with certain biomarkers, but do not go on to develop dementia.
There is hope.
Even more recently reported in the news; researchers are now exploring the shingles vaccine as a way to safeguard from dementia after noticing from observations that those who had the vaccine had reduced incidence of dementia.
This is extremely early stage and no doubt we will learn more with time.
Thanks to the Alzheimer’s Society knowledge team for a hand with the research.
Other articles of mine you may wish to read:
Can the “DASH diet” really lower blood pressure?
Peanut butter – healthy or not?
REFERENCES:
Ahlskog, J.E., Geda, Y.E., Graff-Radford, N.R. and Petersen, R.C., (2011) ‘Physical exercise as a preventive or disease-modifying treatment of dementia and brain aging’. In Mayo clinic proceedings (Vol. 86, No. 9, pp. 876-884). Elsevier. https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)65219-1/pdf Baumgart, M., Snyder, H.M., Carrillo, M.C., Fazio, S., Kim, H. and Johns, H., (2015) ‘Summary of the evidence on modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia: a population-based perspective’. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 11(6), pp.718-726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2015.05.016.
Buchman, A.S., Boyle, P.A., Yu, L., Shah, R.C., Wilson, R.S. and Bennett, D.A., (2012) ‘Total daily physical activity and the risk of AD and cognitive decline in older adults’. Neurology, 78(17), pp.1323-1329.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22517108/
del Pozo Cruz, B., Ahmadi, M., Naismith, S.L. and Stamatakis, E., (2022) ‘Association of daily step count and intensity with incident dementia in 78 430 adults living in the UK’. JAMA neurology, 79(10), pp.1059-1063.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36066874/
Jiang, R., Noble, S., Sui, J., Yoo, K., Rosenblatt, M., Horien, C., Qi, S., Liang, Q., Sun, H., Calhoun, V.D. and Scheinost, D., (2023) Associations of physical frailty with health outcomes and brain structure in 483 033 middle-aged and older adults: a population-based study from the UK Biobank. The Lancet Digital Health, 5(6), pp.e350-e359.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37061351/
Moniruzzaman, M., Kadota, A., Akash, M.S., Pruitt, P.J., Miura, K., Albin, R. and Dodge, H.H., (2020) ‘Effects of physical activities on dementia‐related biomarkers: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials’. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, 6(1), p.e12109.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33521235/
Petermann-Rocha, F., Lyall, D.M., Gray, S.R., Gill, J.M., Sattar, N., Welsh, P., Quinn, T.J., Stewart, W., Pell, J.P., Ho, F.K. and Celis-Morales, C., (2021) ‘Dose-response association between device-measured physical activity and incident dementia: a prospective study from UK Biobank’. BMC medicine, 19, pp.1-13. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34852818/ Baumgart, M., Snyder, H.M., Carrillo, M.C., Fazio, S., Kim, H. and Johns, H., (2015) ‘Summary of the evidence on modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia: a population-based perspective’. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 11(6), pp.718-726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2015.05.016.
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