According to the research by Dacks et al. (2014), Alzheimer’s
Disease [AD] and other dementias impact over 35 million older adults around the
globe. The estimated cost of care in
2010 was over $600 billion and climbing.
Over 89% of those costs were incurred by high-income countries.
Mounting evidence suggest that modifiable factors in
midlife may alter the risk of dementia in later life. This means that if you take action to make
lifestyle changes in midlife, you may be able to avoid dementia later on! For example, Dacks et al. (2014) have identified
seven modifiable risk factors that, if addressed, may cut the risk of AD in
half! This means that cognitive decline
may be prevented or mitigated. This is
GREAT news! The modifiable risk factors
are:
1.
Diabetes
2.
Midlife hypertension [high blood pressure]
3.
Midlife obesity [obesity is beyond overweight. Normal BMI is 18.5-24.9]
4.
Smoking
5.
Depression
6.
Cognitive inactivity or low educational
attainment
7.
Physical inactivity.
Couch potatoes beware!
Reducing the prevelance of these risk factors by only 10% could prevent
up to 1.1 million cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease
Source:
Dacks,
P.A., Andrieu, D., Blacker, A.J., Carman, A.M., Green, F., Grodstein, V.W.,
Henderson, B.D., James, R.F., Lane, J., Lau, P., Lin, B.C., Reeves, R.C. Shah,
B., Vellas, K., Yaffe, K., Yurko-Mauro, Shineman, H.M., Fillet, D.A.. (2014). Dementia prevention: Optimizing the
use of observational data for personal, clinical, and public health
decision-making. Journal of
Alzheimer’s Prevention Disease,1(2):117-123
