Your risk of dementia: Do lifestyle and genetics matter?

Globally, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are a major burden on individuals and communities. To make matters worse, there are few treatments to combat these complex illnesses. Even the causes of dementia are widely debated. Sadly, clinical trials for drugs to stop or even slow its progress have come up short. Taking a different tack, some experts hope to intervene before people are diagnosed with dementia by encouraging lifestyle changes. What is dementia and what makes it so complex? Dementia describes groups of specific diseases characterized by symptoms such as memory loss. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease (AD). People with AD have plaques in their brains made of up of tangled proteins, and many researchers have hypothesized that these plaques are the cause of the disease. Another common type of dementia is vascular dementia. This is thought to be induced by damaged blood vessels in the brain, such as from a stroke. Experts believe both genetic factors (variants of genes passed down from mom and dad) and modifiable lifestyle factors (diet, pollution, infection, smoking, physical activity) all play a role in the development of dementia, perhaps in concert. What factors might affect dementia risk? Genes – which are not considered modifiable —and lifestyle factors like physical activity and diet – which are considered modifiable – play potential roles in different forms of dementia. A recent study in JAMA attempts to estimate...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Brain and cognitive health Genes Medical Research Memory Source Type: blogs