Vascular Degeneration in the Brain as the Common Link Between Lifestyle and Dementia

Researchers here propose that the unifying underlying mechanism for lifestyle influences on dementia risk is chronic inflammation. That inflammation causes vascular degeneration and a consequent decline in the blood supply to the brain, which in turn contributes - to some degree - to all of the observed issues in the aging brain. When present to a large degree, these vascular issues are categorized as vascular dementia, a widely studied condition. But it is entirely plausible that subclinical vascular degeneration is an important mediating factor linking lifestyle and dementia. A competing hypothesis involves the role of persistent infection, and correlation between lifestyle factors and risk of suffering such infections. This also would be expected to proceed via raised levels of inflammation in the brain. The state of the immune system is indeed an important factor in aging. The 2020 report of the Lancet Commission identified twelve potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia including less education, hypertension, hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, and low social contact, and suggested that 40% of worldwide dementias may be due to these factors. Research has also provided two additional important observations relevant to the etiology of dementia. The first was that drugs that successfully eliminated cerebral accumulations of beta amyloid have so far shown only modest impact on cognitive deficits, although trials a...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs