There is no sure way to prevent dementia. But, there are some things you can do to lower your risk of developing a dementia. There is a growing amount of evidence that staying in school, keeping your mind active and maintaining good physical health can significantly lower your risk.
Two studies published recently – one conducted in Britain and the other in Denmark – show a lower incidence of dementia among older adults who had more years of schooling, and among those who better-controlled their blood pressure, cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors.
The British study, published July 16th in The Lancet, found that dementia rates fell by 25% between 1984 and 2011 among people ages 65 and older in parts of England and Wales. The researchers tested 7.635 randomly selected people and found the incidence of dementia dropped from 8.3% in the 1984 to 1994 period to 6.2% in the 2008 to 2011 period.
The Danish study, also published in The Lancet, found that people in their 90s who were given standard physical health and cognitive screening tests in 2010 scored significantly better than people in their 90s who were tested in 1998. The percentage of people who were severely impaired dropped from 22% in 1998 to 17% in 2010, and nearly 25% of those assessed in 2010 scored at the highest level, twice the rate of those tested in 1998.
These studies provide some of the strongest evidence yet of what many researchers have long suspected – that the overall health improvements and increasing amount of formal education experienced in developed nations in recent decades could lead to a reduction in dementia rates. Researchers expect that similar trends are occurring in the United States.
The two new studies help confirm the findings of previous dementia-related research – and the advice that is often given by physicians, geriatric care managers and other healthcare professionals.
Research has long suggested that older adults with more years of formal education have a lower likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s or other dementia types. One 2007 study of Finnish adults, published in the journal Neurology, found over a two-decade period that men and women with nine or more years of schooling had an 84% lower chance of developing dementia than those who had fewer than five years of formal schooling.
Researchers believe education is associated with dementia risk in a variety of ways. These include the fact that higher levels of formal schooling often lead to higher-paying jobs, and the ways in which higher income tends to correlate with lower smoking rates, higher exercise rates and overall healthier lifestyles. It has also been suggested by some researchers that formal education helps the brain’s circuitry to operate more efficiently, and that people with higher education levels are therefore better equipped to compensate for nerve cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s.
Other studies have suggested that staying mentally stimulated later in life – through volunteer activities or doing crossword puzzles, for example – may lower the risk of developing dementia or delay its onset.
Staying in good physical shape and eating a healthy diet has also been linked to reduced dementia risk. Studies have shown that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in certain fish and nuts, can lower your risk of developing dementia. And, finding ways to control your blood pressure can lower your risk of dementias caused by mini-strokes or other vascular damage.
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