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21 Ways to Lower Your Risk of Alzheimer's, According to Science

2020-09-21T14:52:53.723Z


There are 21 known ways to lower your risk of developing Alzheimer's, and they're backed by science. Get to know them in this note.


These are 7 ways to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's 1:06

(CNN) -

There are 21 known ways to lower your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

10 of them are backed by strong scientific evidence, new research has revealed.


The preventive steps with the greatest impact are mental stimulation activities, such as reading and chess;

avoid stress, depression and head injuries;

and avoiding diabetes, high blood pressure and weight gain in middle age and beyond, according to a meta-analysis published Monday.

Regular physical exercise, quality sleep, not smoking, maintaining good heart health in old age, and including vitamin C in the diet are among the nine preventive actions with slightly weaker but still supporting evidence.

LOOK: How does the new blood test to detect Alzheimer's disease work?

"If risk factors can be modified, the evidence suggests that at least one in three Alzheimer's cases can be prevented," said neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine.

"People can take different paths to Alzheimer's disease," said Isaacson, who was not involved in the study.

"This document helps provide an evidence-based framework for clinicians and patients to consider when managing a person's risk for Alzheimer's."

The study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Top-notch preventions against Alzheimer's

Two-thirds of the most promising interventions focused on healthy lifestyle changes and cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

The study analyzed 395 prospective observational studies and randomized controlled trials.

These efforts, the researchers said, were "the most comprehensive and large-scale systematic review and meta-analysis for Alzheimer's disease to date."

The top 10 science-backed actions to prevent Alzheimer's the study found included:

    • Keeping blood sugar levels and weight under control to avoid diabetes

    • Maintain weight at a healthy level, usually below a body mass index (BMI) of 25

    • Get as much education as possible in early life

    • Avoid trauma to the head (such as concussions)

    • Stay cognitively active by reading and learning new things

    • Avoid or control depression

    • Manage stress that raises cortisol levels

    • Treat "orthostatic hypotension" when you regularly feel dizzy or light-headed when getting up from sitting

    • Keeping blood pressure under control in middle age

    • Avoid high levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that can contribute to blood clots in blood vessels and damage to arteries

The role of homocysteine

"One of the most important and commonly overlooked modifiable factors is a high level of homocysteine ​​in the blood," Isaacson said.

At his New York-based preventive clinic, he said he will often suggest B-complex vitamins to combat elevated homocysteine ​​levels.

LOOK: The 7 ways to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, backed by scientific research

"However, previous research has shown that vitamin B supplementation 'works' better if these people also have sufficient levels of Omega3, which is a brain-healthy fat found in fatty fish, for example," Isaacson explained. .

"So this is just one of many examples of the complex decision-making network that applies to the clinical care of people at risk of disease."

Other positive steps to reduce your risk of Alzheimer's:

Nine actions that had weaker, but still positive, impacts on reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer's were:

  • Get regular physical exercise

  • Eliminate obesity in middle age

  • Avoid weight loss in old age

  • Don't smoke and avoid secondhand smoke

  • Sleep quite well

  • Avoid cerebrovascular diseases, which include strokes and diseases that affect blood flow in the brain.

  • Avoid frailty in old age

  • Management of atrial fibrillation, which is a fast and irregular heart rate due to chaotic electrical signals in the heart

  • Eating foods with vitamin C or taking supplements

Recommendations for doctors

Of the 21 study recommendations, the last two were actions physicians should avoid when working with patients at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Strong evidence was found against giving estrogen replacement therapy to postmenopausal women to improve cognition.

"I fully agree with this statement, but for women in perimenopause and early menopause, hormone replacement therapy can sometimes be considered based on a variety of other factors," Isaacson said.

Finally, weaker evidence indicated that acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (drugs such as donepezil and galantamine, which are often prescribed to treat memory loss in people with diagnosed Alzheimer's disease) should not be used as a prevention tactic.

"Those are drugs for symptomatic people with mild or worse dementia," Isaacson said.

"Those drugs work for symptoms but they don't slow the progression of the disease."

People who are concerned about their risk of developing Alzheimer's should work with a physician trained in the field to develop an individualized plan to reduce their risk, Isaacson said.

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Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2020-09-21

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