Are you concerned about preventing Alzheimer Disease or any form of dementia as you age? If so, many people are aware of the risk factors and search for the magic pill that will stall or help prevent or reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease and any related dementias.
Dementia Potential Risk Factors
What increases or decreases your chance of developing particular diseases as you age? These are risk factors that can be controlled or not. Uncontrollable factors are of course age, genes and their related changes. Subtle factors can also be race and gender, which is being widely studied.
The one thing most controllable are behavior and lifestyle. Researchers are not ready to say at this point that these two factors will definitely prevent these diseases, but there are promising results at this time.
Learn How To Reduce the Risk Factors
As the number of older Americans are rising, the number of people with dementia is predicted to also rise. Studies have recently shown that new cases in a population have decreased in some locations. Observational studies have revealed factors such as healthy lifestyle behaviors and higher levels of education may be contributing to such a decline. But this cause and effect is uncertain. and need to be tested in a clinical trial to make further recommendations.
“A review of published research evaluated the evidence from clinical trials on behavior and lifestyle changes to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s or age-related cognitive decline. The review found “encouraging but inconclusive” evidence for three types of behavioral changes (called interventions): physical activity, blood pressure control, and cognitive training. The findings mean that interventions in these areas are promising enough that researchers should keep studying them to learn more. Researchers continue to explore these and other interventions to determine whether — and in what amounts or forms — they might prevent dementia.” From Alzheimers government website.
Watch a video that highlights conclusions and recommendations from the research review published on the same site above.
Control What You Can Control
Leading a healthy lifestyle has not been a proven or effective way to prevent Alzheimers or dementia, but researchers are frantically seeking answers. Consult the concise list below to see the factors researchers today are focused on the following:
Control high blood pressure.
Manage blood sugar.
Maintain a healthy weight
Eat a healthy diet
Keep Learning
Keep physically active
Stay mentally and socially active
Stay connected with family and friends
Treat hearing problems.
Take care of your mental and physical health
Prevent head injury
Drink less alcohol
Stop tobacco use
Sleep well.
This list is expanded on and further explained on the Alzheimers website.
Researchers cannot say for certain whether making the above lifestyle changes will protect against dementia, but these changes are good for your health and are all part of making healthy choices as you age.
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