Are you worried about developing dementia yourself? Maybe you have family members who’ve been diagnosed, so you think that means you’ll probably get it too.
Well, I have some great news. A research study published in February 2024 found five lifestyle factors that could lower your dementia risk. And here’s the coolest part. These five factors reduced dementia risk even when the brain showed the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.
I’m going to walk you through them like a quiz, so you can score yourself as we go.
What the Study Found
People who have Alzheimer’s tend to have amyloid plaques and tau proteins in their brain.
The participants in this study were part of a larger study, the Rush Memory and Aging Project, which followed them over time. They filled out questionnaires and forms about how they lived their lives. Once they passed away, researchers autopsied their brains and looked specifically for amyloid plaques and tau protein.
Then they compared what they found in the brain with how each person had lived. The study was published in JAMA Neurology.
These five factors were independently shown to reduce dementia risk, even when those brain pathologies were present. That’s pretty amazing.
Having the Pathology Doesn’t Mean You’ll Get Alzheimer’s
We know people who have Alzheimer’s disease tend to have these pathologies in their brain. But not everybody who has them ends up developing Alzheimer’s. And people who develop Alzheimer’s sometimes don’t have them.
So signs of amyloid plaque and tau protein don’t necessarily mean you’re going to get Alzheimer’s disease. You would have an increased risk.
I’ve talked about blood tests that can show whether some of these brain changes are present. Have no fear if they are. It doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed or doomed to get Alzheimer’s disease.
How to Score Yourself
As I go through the five factors one by one, I want you to count. Give yourself a point for each one you do most of the time. Five is a perfect score.
1. Diet: The MIND Diet
The first factor that reduced dementia risk in people whose brains had Alzheimer’s pathology was… can you guess it? I’ve heard it a million times. Diet.
People who follow the MIND diet lower their risk for dementia. MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It’s a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet.
It really emphasizes leafy greens, nuts, berries, fish and whole grains.
How did you do? Do you think you follow that diet most of the time? If so, give yourself a point.
2. Physical Exercise: 150 Minutes a Week
I guarantee you can guess the second one. It’s physical exercise.
In particular, 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical exercise per week. That can include walking, biking, gardening, swimming… things that get your heart rate up.
How are you doing so far? Hopefully you have two points.
3. Cognitively Stimulating Activities
The third factor was staying engaged, consistently, in cognitively stimulating activities.
That could include crossword puzzles, but it also includes things like playing cards, visiting museums and learning a new language. Anything that really works the brain. Just like our muscles, our brain needs to be worked.
This one reduced dementia risk regardless of whether people had those brain pathologies.
4. Not Smoking
We’re down to the final two. Number four is not smoking cigarettes.
It’s important to note that this didn’t mean you couldn’t have smoked in the past. It just means that during the time of the study, people weren’t smoking. So even if you’re a past smoker, you can still reduce your dementia risk by quitting.
5. Light to Moderate Alcohol, or None at All
The final factor was alcohol. Light to moderate alcohol consumption, or none at all, reduced dementia risk.
For women, that was about 14 grams of alcohol or less a day. For men, 30 grams or less. What that really amounts to is probably no more than one alcoholic drink a day for a woman and no more than two for a man.
If we follow these, we can reduce our dementia risk even if we’re at a higher risk for dementia.
How Did You Score? Here’s Mine
I think I could probably improve on diet and exercise. I do pretty well, but I can always do better.
Specifically the exercise, and the point about it getting your heart rate up. A lot of what I do, like walking, hiking or even pickleball, doesn’t really get my heart rate up much. I could do more cardio and weight-bearing exercise that does.
I’d give myself maybe three and a half points. I’m hoping you did a little better than me.
It’s Never Too Late to Lower Your Dementia Risk
Here’s the thing. No matter what score you gave yourself, there is always room for improvement.
It is never too late to start prioritizing your own brain health. What you do today will impact your brain health in the future. And thankfully, this research tells us it will impact our brain health regardless of our genetic risk.
I should add a caveat. There’s a very small group, about 1% or less of people with Alzheimer’s, who will develop it no matter what they do. For everybody else, what we do is going to make a huge difference.
A newer study puts dementia risk at 42% for Americans over 55. If you want the full list of risk factors researchers say you can change, I go through them in 14 ways to cut your dementia risk in half.
Information can be power, but applied information is even more powerful. Working on your own health habits is hard to keep up when you’re also handling the stress of caring for a loved one with dementia. Inside the Care Collective, we meet week after week in our support rooms and expert Q&As to work on both. You can learn more here.
Sources & References
Morris MC, et al. MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 2015
