7 Surprising Ways to Lower Your Dementia Risk Affiliate Disclosure
Dementia is an umbrella term for a group of symptoms caused by disorders that affect the brain, including devastating diseases like the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and lesser-known forms of dementia like Lewy body dementia. Even stroke can cause dementia.
More than 5 million people in the U.S. alone are living with Alzheimer’s, so there’s a good chance you know someone affected by dementia. It can be very difficult to watch someone you love deal with symptoms of dementia, which often include memory loss and trouble with language, along with personality changes, delusions, agitation, and less ability to solve problems or control their emotions. It’s important to note that although dementia risk increases with age, it is not part of the normal aging process. (1)
As the unfortunate death of legendary University of Tennessee women’s college basketball coach Pat Summitt reminds us, dementia can strike even younger people — she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 59 and died at age 64.
It’s certainly clear that there’s a lot of pain and suffering involved with Alzheimer’s, and Alzheimer’s drugs have consistently come up short when it comes to curing the disease. There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. A recent small, breakthrough study published in the journal Aging found using a comprehensive, personalized approach, including diet and exercise, actually reversed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The results were so robust and sustained that many of the study participants were able to return to work. (2)
With comprehensive treatments on the horizon, we can feel hopeful that integrative, personalized approaches could be the key to fighting this disease. In the meantime, though, it’s also important you take relatively simple steps to lower your risk of dementia now — before the disease has a chance to set in. Let’s take a look at some of the emerging ways to lower your risk, based on the latest research.
7 Ways to Lower Your Risk of Dementia
You may already know that avoiding processed foods, favoring a Mediterranean diet and exercising lower your risk of dementia. There are other relatively simple, meaningful steps you could take to lower your risk, too.
Click for Full Text!