The seven key lifestyle changes to prevent dementia

There are seven key lifestyle changes you can make to lower your chances of developing dementia.

Even people who have a higher genetic risk of dementia can still be helped by the changes, say researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Centre.

The seven factors are:

• Being active
• Eating a healthier diet
• Losing weight
• Not smoking
• Maintaining healthy blood pressure levels
• Control cholesterol levels
• Reduce blood sugar levels

Each factor reduces dementia risk by around 9 percent, the researchers discovered.  They assessed 8,823 people with European ancestry, and 2,738 people with African ancestry, with an average age of 54 years.  

During the 30 years of the study, 1,603 Europeans and 631 Africans developed dementia, but those in the European group who followed most of the lifestyle factors had a 43 percent lower risk of dementia, while the risk reduction in the African group was 17 percent.

(Source: Neurology, 2022; 10.1212/WNL.0-000000000000200520)

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