dementia prevention

Dual decline in gait speed and memory function seen as most predictive of future dementia

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Walk­ing Speed Helps Pre­dict Future Demen­tia (Med­Page Today):

Dual decline in gait speed and cog­ni­tion car­ried a high­er risk of demen­tia than either gait-only decline or cog­ni­tive-only decline, report­ed Taya Col­ly­er, PhD, of Monash Uni­ver­si­ty in Vic­to­ria, Aus­tralia, and co-authors, in JAMA Net­work Open…

[Read more…] about Dual decline in gait speed and mem­o­ry func­tion seen as most pre­dic­tive of future dementia

Study: Actual, sustained practice–not mere knowledge–is needed to harness neuroplasticity and improve cognition over time

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Lifestyle improve­ments may lessen cog­ni­tive decline (Wiley):

” … 19 indi­vid­u­als old­er than 65 years of age who were expe­ri­enc­ing cog­ni­tive decline were ran­dom­ized to a con­trol group or an inter­ven­tion group for 8 weeks. The con­trol group received online infor­ma­tion relat­ed to demen­tia and lifestyle risk fac­tors, Mediter­ranean diet, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, and cog­ni­tive engage­ment. Par­tic­i­pants were instruct­ed to imple­ment this infor­ma­tion into their own lifestyles. The inter­ven­tion group received the same online infor­ma­tion, plus active com­po­nents to assist with imple­ment­ing this infor­ma­tion into their lifestyles: dietit­ian ses­sions, an exer­cise phys­i­ol­o­gist ses­sion, and online brain train­ing. [Read more…] about Study: Actu­al, sus­tained practice–not mere knowledge–is need­ed to har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and improve cog­ni­tion over time

Reminder: A brain-friendly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cognitive decline and dementia

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While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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What Sci­ence Tells Us About Pre­vent­ing Demen­tia (The Wall Street Journal):

“When it comes to bat­tling demen­tia, the unfor­tu­nate news is this: Med­ica­tions have proven inef­fec­tive at cur­ing or stop­ping the dis­ease and its most com­mon form, Alzheimer’s dis­ease. But that isn’t the end of the sto­ry. Accord­ing to a recent wave of sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies, we have more con­trol over our cog­ni­tive health than is com­mon­ly known. We just have to take cer­tain steps—ideally, ear­ly and often—to live a health­i­er lifestyle.

In fact, accord­ing to a recent report com­mis­sioned by the Lancet, a med­ical jour­nal, around 35% of demen­tia cas­es might be pre­vent­ed if [Read more…] about Reminder: A brain-friend­ly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cog­ni­tive decline and dementia

Update: 35% of worldwide dementia cases could be prevented by modifying these 9 modifiable risk factors

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ July e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, emerg­ing brain health prac­tices and insights…and some fun teasers.

New research

Let’s start with the key take-aways from a new and very insight­ful evi­dence review which found nine mod­i­fi­able risk fac­tors for demen­tia — account­ing for 35% of all cases:
— Edu­ca­tion by age 15 (dur­ing ear­ly life)
— Hyper­ten­sion; Obe­si­ty; Hear­ing loss (in mid-life)
— Depres­sion; Dia­betes; Phys­i­cal inac­tiv­i­ty; Smok­ing; Low social con­tact (in lat­er life)

New thinking

Upcoming events

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Final­ly, you may want to Test your Brain and Mind with these 9 Clas­sic Opti­cal Illu­sions 🙂

 

Have a great August!

The Sharp­Brains Team

Report: 35% of worldwide dementia cases could be prevented by modifying these 9 modifiable risk factors

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The Lancet Com­mis­sion: One Third of Demen­tia May Be Pre­ventable (Lancet report release):

“Today’s find­ings are extreme­ly hope­ful,” said Maria Car­ril­lo, PhD, chief sci­ence offi­cer at the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion. “At an indi­vid­ual lev­el, many peo­ple have the poten­tial to reduce their risk of cog­ni­tive decline, and per­haps demen­tia, through sim­ple, health­ful behav­ior changes. At a pub­lic health lev­el, inter­ven­tions based on this evi­dence could be extreme­ly pow­er­ful in man­ag­ing the glob­al human and eco­nom­ic costs of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and oth­er demen­tias.” [Read more…] about Report: 35% of world­wide demen­tia cas­es could be pre­vent­ed by mod­i­fy­ing these 9 mod­i­fi­able risk factors

UK study: Dementia rates significantly lower than forecasted–especially for men–highlighting the protective role of lifestyle and education

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-- Incidence rate of dementia per 1,000 person years in CFAS I and CFAS II by age at baseline interview. Natural scale. Source: Study below
– Inci­dence rate of demen­tia per 1,000 per­son years in CFAS I (con­duct­ed in the 90s) and CFAS II (just fin­ished) by age at base­line inter­view. Nat­ur­al scale. Source: Study ref­er­enced below.

Drop in demen­tia rates sug­gests dis­ease can be pre­vent­ed, researchers say (The Guardian):

“In the UK, demen­tia has fall­en by a fifth over the past 20 years, pos­si­bly down to lifestyle and edu­ca­tion changes, high­light­ing ben­e­fits of pre­ven­ta­tive action…

A team from three British uni­ver­si­ties con­clud­ed that as a result the num­ber of new cas­es of demen­tia is low­er than had been pre­dict­ed in the 1990s [Read more…] about UK study: Demen­tia rates sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than forecasted–especially for men–highlighting the pro­tec­tive role of lifestyle and education