New survey highlights need to improve brain health literacy

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New Sur­vey: Sci­ence-Backed Habits Reduce Demen­tia Risk, But Many Amer­i­cans Are Mis­in­formed (Read­er’s Digest):

“Reader’s Digest part­nered with the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion to sur­vey approx­i­mate­ly 1,600 peo­ple dur­ing the month of May 2015 about their brain health and their knowl­edge of how lifestyle habits affect cog­ni­tive decline and dementia…respondents seemed to think they had more con­trol over their heart health than their brain health: While 84 per­cent of peo­ple strong­ly agreed that there were things they could do to keep their heart healthy and 81 per­cent of peo­ple strong­ly agreed that there were things they could do to keep their lungs healthy, only 72 per­cent of peo­ple felt there were things they could do to keep their brains healthy.

They also pri­or­i­tized heart health over brain health: 58 per­cent of respon­dents said that the heart was the most impor­tant organ from a health per­spec­tive. (The brain was deemed the sec­ond-most impor­tant, at 33 per­cent. Lungs, mus­cles, skin, and breasts each came in at less than 5 percent).”

To learn more:

• Solv­ing the Brain Fit­ness Puz­zle Is the Key to Self-Empow­ered Aging