The nine risk factors for Alzheimer’s (and the three supplements and one drink that reduce the odds)

There are nine risk factors that account for more than 60 per cent of all cases of Alzheimer’s disease-and there are three supplements, and one drink, you should have regularly to reduce your chances of ever getting it.

Taking vitamin C, E and B12 (folate) supplements and regularly drinking coffee all help ward off the disease-which is caused by up to nine factors, say researchers at the University of California at San Francisco.

Those factors are:

o Obesity
o Smoking (especially among Asian people)
o Carotid artery narrowing
o Type 2 diabetes (again specifically in the Asian community)
o Low education
o High levels of homocysteine
o Depression
o High blood pressure
o Frailty

The factors are responsible for two-thirds of all cases of Alzheimer’s, the researchers say. Of these, high levels of homocysteine, an amino acid produced by the body, and depression were two of the biggest possible causes, and their effects were magnified if any of the other pre-existing factors were also present.

Their findings were based on an analysis of 323 studies which involved more than 5,000 people.

(Source: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2015; jnnp-2015-310548)

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