New Study Shows That Dementia Can Be Preventable Through 5 Lifestyle Changes
Alzheimer’s Disease is an incurable condition and those who have been diagnosed, as well as the people close to them, have only management strategies as their care options. The goal of those looking after someone who has this disease is to ensure that the person is safe and continues to live healthily. Because the cognitive functions have declined, it is now up to the caregiver to make important decisions about every aspect of the person’s life. In short, it is a difficult experience that requires plenty of patience, understanding, knowledge, and love.
On the upside, there are ways to reduce one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, battling the condition on the level of dementia; that is, before it becomes irreversible. According to researchers from Rush University in Chicago, certain lifestyle factors can still be altered to somehow prevent this from happening to you or someone you love. A combination of several positive lifestyle changes, the study finds, can reduce one’s risk of succumbing to cognitive decline.
The findings are not exclusive to the Chicago results, as it has also been observed in researches conducted in the UK and the University of California. In the first study, scientists found that people who adopted a healthy lifestyle had a 32% lower chance of cognitive degradation. In the second, researchers observed that those who did not smoke or had stopped smoking had a better chance of not falling into cognitive decline than those who continued to smoke daily.
These three and more findings from different facilities worldwide only reinforce the notion that the development of dementia and cognitive impairment could be a product of one’s lifestyle choices, too; not just genetics and injury. This is hopeful news to those who fear the dementia is solely a genetic issue and that they will someday have it because their elders did. It also changes the game about how people live in preparation for generally getting older.
Chicago Scientists Find Lifestyle Choices Can Alter Dementia Risks
The researchers from Rush University gathered data from 920 participants in the Rush Memory and Aging Project and 1,845 from the Chicago Health and Aging Project — all of whom had no dementia. They were then assigned lifestyle scores according to how many of five conditions were met, as follows:
– whether or not the smoked
– whether they exercise for at least 150 minutes/week (moderate to vigorous levels)
– whether they drank alcohol (light to moderate)
– whether they engaged in cognitive activities
– whether they had a diet that supports brain health
Scoring was either 0 or 1, with a maximum score of 5. The participants were observed over a period of six years, with constant follow-ups and data recording in between.
At the end of the observation period, the researchers found that 608 had developed dementia. However, when they looked into their data, they also saw that those who adopted two or three of the five conditions were at 37% lower risk, while those who practiced four to five of the conditions were 60% less likely to have dementia. Following these observations, the researchers concluded that lifestyle factors indeed can affect exposure to cognitive decline.
Of course, it is too early to conclude whether or not huge lifestyle changes can prevent Alzheimer’s dementia, but these findings offer a huge leap in the study for its prevention (and, possibly, cure in the future). It still does not clarify whether behaviors can slow down the pathology that deteriorates the brain function in those diagnosed with the disease or whether it makes the brain more resilient to such degradation.
Obviously, further study is required to explore these findings. However, given that there are only a few drugs that can be used to manage the disease, knowing that alterations in the way we live might be able control its rapid onset is welcome information.
