February 19, 2018

Working to Prevent Dementia

Alzheimers.net recently published an article discussing a new study that recognizes the power of lifestyle choices in dementia prevention.

The article discusses that over one-third of all dementia cases may be preventable due to positive lifestyle choices. Encouraging public health strategies, such as regular exercise, protecting hearing and staying in school, can have large impacts on the numbers of people afflicted with dementia.

In their study, the researchers found that avoiding the below risk factors would reduce the global prevalence of dementia by 35 percent.

• Discontinuing education before the age of 15
• Untreated hearing loss in middle age
• Smoking after the age of 65
• High blood pressure
• Obesity
• Depression
• Physical inactivity
• Social isolation
• Diabetes in adults over 65

While there are many risk factors related to dementia that researchers are still trying to understand, they believe that working on reducing the known risk factors is a good start to prevention.

Read the full article here.