These 7 lifestyle choices could reduce risk of dementia

By James Gamble via SWNS

Seven healthy lifestyle choices including regular exercise, watching our weight, abstaining from smoking and maintaining healthy blood pressure can help reduce the risk of dementia, a new study has found.

The seven cardiovascular and brain health factors, known as Life’s Simple 7, displayed signs of reducing the risk of dementia in middle-aged women.

Other factors prescribed to warn off dementia development include maintaining a healthy diet, having low blood sugar and controlling cholesterol levels.

The 20-year study of more than 10,000 women in the United States showed a collective increase in Simple Seven scores led to a decrease of up to six percent in the risk of developing dementia.

The study's authors hope the health tips can help people ward off dementia in later life by taking action in middle age.

The researchers, from the American Academy of Neurology, followed a group of 13,720 female participants in the USA, with an average age of 54 at the beginning of the study.

Seven health factors, known as the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7, were identified.

The factors were: being active, eating better, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, maintaining healthy blood pressure, controlling cholesterol and having low blood sugar.

Participants were given a score of zero for poor or intermediate health and one point for ideal health for each of the seven health factors - amounting to a possible total score of seven.

The average score was shown to be 4.3 out of seven at the start of the study, and 4.2 ten years later.

After 20 years, the researchers identified that 1,771 of the group - or 13 percent - had developed dementia.

Adjusting their data for factors such as age and education, the research team found that for every increase of one point in a participant's total score, their risk of dementia decreased by six percent.

Dr. Pamela Rist, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, highlighted the importance of taking preventative measures against dementia.

Dr. Rist, who is also a member of the American Academy of Neurology, said: "Since we now know that dementia can begin in the brain decades before diagnosis, it’s important that we learn more about how your habits in middle age can affect your risk of dementia in old age.

"The good news is that making healthy lifestyle choices in middle age may lead to a decreased risk of dementia later in life.”

Despite the success of their ground-breaking research, the study's authors did also admit to limitations in their work, such as their being unable to identify how factors such as quitting smoking influenced the risk of dementia in later life.

But Dr. Rist added: “It can be empowering for people to know that by taking steps such as exercising for half an hour a day, or keeping their blood pressure under control, they can reduce their risk of dementia."

The study is to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 75th Annual Meeting in Boston, which is being held both in person and online between April 22 and 27.

The American Academy of Neurology is the world’s largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 38,000 members in its ranks.