Prevention of dementia: speculative tips

A third of dementia cases are associated with 9 manageable risk factors

Anna Kerman, XX2 century, based on Medical Xpress: Lifestyle changes to stave off Alzheimer's? Hints, no proof

There is no proven way to prevent Alzheimer's disease, but new data suggest that if nine risk factors are avoided from childhood, it is possible to delay or even prevent about a third of cases of mental decline.

How? This is due to habits that weaken the brain, making it more prone to memory and thinking problems with age. For example: lack of education in childhood, high blood pressure and overweight in middle age, sedentary lifestyle and loneliness in old age.

The article Dementia prevention, intervention, and care in the British journal Lancet is provocative: the authors admit that they are building a theory based on statistical modeling.

Still, it's worth trying – and starting early, says Gill Livingston, lead author of the study, professor of psychiatry at University College London.

She notes: "Although the weakening of mental abilities is diagnosed in old age, brain changes begin years before that."

At the beginning of next year, a large study will be launched in the United States to establish whether simple daily actions can really help people of age maintain mental acuity. Experts on Alzheimer's disease believe that there is nothing wrong with following the recommendations dictated by common sense.

"A healthy body supports brain health," said cognitive neuroscientist Laura Baker from the Medical School in Wake Forest School of Medicine. Dr. Baker will lead this study.

Take, for example, physical activity, which is important for heart health. "If it turns out that it improves cognitive functions, so much the better!" – said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the US National Institute on Aging and an amateur athlete.

The following are ways that can help preserve brain function; they were discussed at this week's international conference of Alzheimer's Associations (Alzheimer's Association International Conference).

Main risks

A commission appointed by the Lancet magazine has created a scheme that shows that about 35% of dementia cases can be attributed to nine risk factors – those that can be independently influenced.

Final recommendations: give a good education in childhood; avoid high blood pressure, obesity and smoking; treat diabetes, depression and age-related hearing loss; maintain physical activity; maintain social ties in old age.

Assumption: These factors affect the brain's resistance to slow destruction, which leads to Alzheimer's disease.

Will it really help?

Last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine of the USA (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine) reported that there is little evidence of this. Some evidence has been found that pressure control, physical exercise and brain training (intellectual stimuli) can help and definitely will not do harm.

Why? What's good for the heart is usually good for the brain. High blood pressure, which can trigger a heart attack and stroke, simultaneously increases the risk of vascular dementia.

Gray matter training – education in childhood or learning a foreign language in adulthood – helps to keep the brain "in shape". The more you learn, the more connections are formed in the brain – scientists call this a cognitive reserve. Some studies conducted in the United States suggest that grandchildren who have received a better education than their grandparents are less at risk of dementia.

Other factors have less scientific justification. Studies have shown that people who lose their hearing are more prone to memory problems. It has been suggested that this is due to the fact that hearing loss leads to depression and loneliness. Also, perhaps the reason is that it encourages the brain to work harder to make out obscure sounds – at the expense of other thought processes. But now there are no studies that would show that hearing aids reduce such a danger.

So far, the most significant evidence that lifestyle changes help the brain has come from Finland. A large study on a random sample showed that elderly people with a high risk of dementia who had been exercising for two years, eating right, getting enough intellectual activity and communication, achieved better results on brain testing.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  24.07.2017