diabetes

Systematic review finds ten lifestyle factors that clearly impact the probability of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

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Although there’s still no cure, researchers are con­tin­u­ing to devel­op a bet­ter under­stand­ing of what increas­es a person’s risk of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease. A recent study that looked at 396 stud­ies has even been able to iden­ti­fy ten risk fac­tors that are shown to increase the like­li­hood of devel­op­ing the disease.

Here are the fac­tors researchers iden­ti­fied – and why they’re asso­ci­at­ed with a high­er risk.

1. Lower education level

A low­er edu­ca­tion lev­el is asso­ci­at­ed with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Pre­vi­ous evi­dence shows the longer you spend in edu­ca­tion, the low­er your risk of devel­op­ing demen­tia. Research look­ing at the brains of peo­ple from dif­fer­ent edu­ca­tion­al back­grounds also showed that peo­ple who were more edu­cat­ed had heav­ier brains. As you lose one third of your brain weight because of demen­tia, a heav­ier brain may make you more resilient. [Read more…] about Sys­tem­at­ic review finds ten lifestyle fac­tors that clear­ly impact the prob­a­bil­i­ty of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD)

Report finds only 35% of Canadian youth get the physical activity recommended for brain health

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Get­ting kids out­side and active could help with brain health: Par­tic­i­paction report (The Globe and Mail):

“The phys­i­cal ben­e­fits of kids lead­ing an active lifestyle, includ­ing bet­ter heart health and a decreased risk of devel­op­ing Type 2 dia­betes, are well known. But a grow­ing body of research sug­gests there are sig­nif­i­cant men­tal ben­e­fits as well, whether it’s low­er­ing stress lev­els or help­ing to treat anx­i­ety and depres­sion. A new report released by Par­tic­i­paction on Tues­day draws atten­tion to this link, [Read more…] about Report finds only 35% of Cana­di­an youth get the phys­i­cal activ­i­ty rec­om­mend­ed for brain health

10-year study finds that the higher the blood sugar level, the faster the cognitive decline over time — regardless of diabetic status

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The Star­tling Link Between Sug­ar and Alzheimer’s (The Atlantic):

“A lon­gi­tu­di­nal study, pub­lished Thurs­day in the jour­nal Dia­betolo­gia, fol­lowed 5,189 peo­ple over 10 years and found that peo­ple with high blood sug­ar had a faster rate of cog­ni­tive decline than those with nor­mal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sug­ar lev­el tech­ni­cal­ly made them dia­bet­ic. In oth­er words, the high­er the blood sug­ar, the faster the cog­ni­tive decline. [Read more…] about 10-year study finds that the high­er the blood sug­ar lev­el, the faster the cog­ni­tive decline over time — regard­less of dia­bet­ic status

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

To address the upcoming Alzheimer’s “epidemic”, let’s approach 2016 with these 4 Pillars of Alzheimer’s Prevention

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alzheimers-disease-prevention.

As you prob­a­bly know, we are in a health care cri­sis. The num­ber of peo­ple with Alzheimer’s dis­ease con­tin­ues to sky-rock­et as peo­ple age and may reach cri­sis pro­por­tions.  A nation­al goal has been set to pre­vent and cure Alzheimer’s by 2020 or no lat­er than 2025, with a lion’s share of this mon­ey going into drug research, which, while ongo­ing, has thus far has been elusive.

This focus entire­ly on drugs may be chang­ing how­ev­er, as the [Read more…] about To address the upcom­ing Alzheimer’s “epi­dem­ic”, let’s approach 2016 with these 4 Pil­lars of Alzheimer’s Prevention