Study highlights importance of midlife health in dementia prevention
Maintaining normal blood pressure, avoiding diabetes, and not smoking between the ages of 45 and 65 could help keep dementia away for an extra 13 years, a study has found, reports BritPanorama.
Women lived longer without dementia than men, while white participants remained dementia-free for longer than their black counterparts, regardless of risk factors. This was revealed by researchers at NYU Langone Health, who underscored the influence of known risk factors that can accelerate the onset of dementia and cardiovascular illnesses.
“People need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade,” said senior investigator Josef Coresh. He pointed out the urgency of identifying methods to delay dementia, given that 42 per cent of Americans develop the condition after age 55.
The study, published in Neurology Open Access, analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, initiated in 1986 across four US cities. Researchers followed participants into late life, measuring midlife vascular risk factors and subsequent dementia diagnoses.
The assessment included 12,409 individuals with an average age of 56, examining their risk profiles for high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking. Among this group, 3,008 developed dementia while 5,238 died without the condition.
Notably, those with risk factors had an average of 17 years without dementia, whereas those without such factors lived nearly 30 years free from the disease. Women with all three risk factors lived an average of 18.1 years without dementia, compared to 16.6 years for men. Furthermore, white participants with these risk factors averaged 19.6 years without dementia, in contrast to 16 years for black participants.
“These results suggest that vascular risk reduction may benefit all groups, but that certain populations, such as black adults, may especially benefit from targeted prevention efforts,” Dr Coresh added. He expressed hope that these findings would encourage individuals to quit smoking and closely monitor their vascular health starting at age 45.
