Dementia Prevention and Good Brain Health
What's good for the heart is good for the brain!
Getting older doesn’t mean you will get dementia and dementia does not exclusively affect older people. Young Onset Dementia is defined as the onset of symptoms before the age of 65 and accounts for 9% of cases.
Did you know that up to 45% of all dementia cases are potentially preventable?
Whilst no single behaviour is guaranteed to prevent dementia, our lifestyle choices have a profound impact on brain health. There are things you can do to reduce your risk of developing dementia. These include keeping active, sleeping well, managing stress, eating healthily, and exercising your mind. You can also focus on reducing cholesterol and protecting and testing your hearing. The younger you start, the better!
Dementia Prevention videos
Dementia Prevention: Introduction
Dementia Prevention: Health practitioners
Dementia Prevention: Learning Disabilities
Dementia Prevention: midlife + including mild memory loss
Dementia Prevention: primary schools
Dementia Prevention: secondary schools
Dementia Prevention: university/college
Risk Factors
There are a number of risk factors associated with dementia and you can read more about these and learn how to adapt your lifestyle. The 14 risk factors and accompanying factsheets are listed below:
The researchers calculate that if, as a society and as individuals, we could completely address these 14 health and lifestyle factors, it could prevent or delay nearly half (45%) of dementia cases.
It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that individual cases can be attributed to either ‘lifestyle’ or ‘non-lifestyle’ factors. Just as we are all affected by both the genes we’re born with and the lives we lead, our chances of developing dementia are influenced by both too. And there’s no sure-fire way of preventing it.
What this research is saying is that dementia is more common among people who have one or more of these risk factors.
In drawing up the Lancet report, the researchers pulled together data from hundreds of observational studies across the globe. Using statistical calculations, they were able to estimate the size of impact of the 14 risk factors, and the percentage of cases that would be prevented or delayed if each risk factor didn’t exist.
They then combined these results, taking into account how some people tend to have more than one risk factor, leading to the figure of 45%.
In the updated report, the researchers conclude that there’s now sufficient evidence to add two new risk factors— uncorrected vision loss and high cholesterol. They calculate that, taken together, these are associated with 9% of all dementia cases.
Uncorrected vision loss covers lots of things, including not wearing glasses for short- or long-sightedness over a very long period of time. But of particular note, research has identified an increase in dementia risk among people with two specific conditions that cause vision loss – diabetic retinopathy and cataracts – if they go untreated. More research is needed to understand exactly why these increase risk, but these eye conditions are linked to inflammation and blood vessel damage, which contribute to diseases like Alzheimer’s.
High cholesterol is a common, treatable condition that increases the risk of several other serious conditions, including strokes and blood vessel damage. Nearly one in three people who have a stroke go on to develop vascular dementia, highlighting how high cholesterol may at least in part contribute to dementia risk. There are also studiers suggesting that it may be linked to a build-up of proteins called amyloid and tau – both of which are key features of Alzheimer’s disease.
The new report estimates that the most important risk factors, linked to the greatest proportion of people developing dementia, are hearing impairment and high cholesterol (7% each) followed by less education in early life and social isolation in later life (5% each).
