Yes! According to a new report, addressing 14 dementia risk factors could significantly reduce dementia cases.
A new report summarizes the latest research on dementia prevention, identifying 14 factors associated with increased dementia risk. According to this report, addressing these risk factors could theoretically prevent 45% of dementia cases. While eliminating all risks is unlikely, understanding the most important risk factors can help guide prevention efforts.
The report also identifies the time in our lives when each risk factor seems most important, which can tell us when interventions might be most impactful.
What does this information mean for me?
This report calculates potentially modifiable dementia risk at the population level. This means you can’t use this information to calculate your own individual risk of dementia. But you can use this list of risk factors to inform your best bets for preventing dementia at any age. Here are some things you might consider based on this report:
- Go to school and stay in school. Be physically active. Spend time with friends and family.
- Seek treatment for hearing and vision loss, high blood pressure and cholesterol, depression, and diabetes.
- Avoid heavy drinking and smoking (or stop when you’re able).
Here are the most notable dementia risk factors highlighted by the report for each life stage:
➡️ Early Life (< 45 years)
🔸 Education – More schooling is associated with lower dementia risk. Early childhood education seems especially important. One theory is that education increases baseline brain function, so that it takes longer for dementia to impact how someone functions. Imagine the brain is a tank of gas where education effectively increases the size of a person’s tank so it takes longer to run out of gas.
➡️ Midlife (45-65 years)
🔸 Hearing loss – Hearing loss is associated with an increased risk of dementia. One of the leading theories is that hearing loss reduces a person’s ability to interact with others and less stimulation leads to worse brain function. Therefore, preventing hearing loss or using hearing aids may help mitigate this effect.
🔸 Depression – There is a clear association between depression and dementia risk. However, it is less clear whether depression causes dementia, is a reaction to dementia, or is an early symptom of dementia. Treating depression is associated with reduced dementia risk in observational studies. However, there are no randomized controlled trials testing this finding, which is the gold-standard in research.
🔸 Traumatic brain injury – Head injuries are associated with a higher risk of dementia. Car accidents, falls, and violence cause the most head injuries. Alcohol use often contributes to these three causes. For sports-related head injuries, which are less common, the authors recommend head protection, reducing high-impact collisions, and avoiding play immediately after head injury.
🔸 Excessive alcohol use – Heavy alcohol use is associated with an increased risk of dementia when compared to lighter or no drinking. Reducing heavy alcohol use is also associated with less dementia risk.
🔸 High LDL cholesterol – New research shows that higher cholesterol in midlife, specifically low-density lipoprotein (LDL), is associated with higher dementia risk. Some studies showed reduced dementia rates in those who took medications to reduce cholesterol, but others showed no difference.
🔸 Diabetes (high blood sugar) – Type 2 diabetes in midlife is associated with an increased risk of dementia. Having a longer duration of diabetes and higher blood sugars can elevate this risk further. Research is still mixed about whether diabetes medication use or weight loss programs for people with diabetes can reduce dementia risk.
🔸 High blood pressure – High blood pressure is associated with an increased risk for dementia. Many high-quality studies show that reducing blood pressure through medications reduces dementia risk.
🔸 Physical inactivity – Physical activity in mid- and late life is associated with reduced dementia risk. The biggest impact occurred when people shifted from being very sedentary to doing some activity.
🔸 Obesity and weight – Midlife obesity (body mass index over 30 kg/m2) is associated with an increased risk of dementia. Studies show some benefits of weight loss programs on memory and thinking with aging in general but don’t look specifically at dementia risk.
🔸 Smoking – Smoking in midlife is associated with increased dementia risk. Stopping smoking can be beneficial regardless of age.
➡️ Later Life (>65 years)
🔸 Social isolation & loneliness – Social isolation and loneliness are both associated with increased dementia risk. Social isolation is less frequent social contact, which is related to but different from loneliness. Loneliness is when a person feels that their social contact is not meeting their needs. Furthermore, social contact is associated with reduced dementia risk, but interventions meant to increase social contact have shown inconsistent results.
🔸 Air pollution – Many high-quality studies show that air pollution is associated with increased dementia risk. Improving air quality is also associated with lowering dementia risk, especially in high-pollution areas.
🔸 Untreated visual loss – This is another new finding in this report. There is an increased risk of dementia in people who need glasses but don’t have them. This is most commonly an issue in low and middle-income countries. Researchers are not quite sure why this connection exists yet.
It’s never too late to reduce your risk and take care of your brain health!
Be well,
Those Nerdy Girls
