Authored by A.C. Daahnke via The Epoch Times
An estimated 57 million people around the world are living with dementia, and that number is expected to increase to 153 million by 2050.
With the increasing number of countries entering an aged society, dementia has become a pressing issue that a lot of families and the general public need to face. (Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock) But a new report published by the Lancet Commission on dementia estimates that almost half of the cases of the neurological disease can likely be avoided or delayed. Twenty-seven of the world’s leading dementia experts co-authored the report.These experts point to 12 existing risk factors and two new ones that could prevent or delay dementia.
The two new risk factors included are vision loss and having high low- density lipoprotein or LDL cholesterol.
The previous 12 risk factors include less education, hearing loss, depression, traumatic brain injury, physical inactivity, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, social isolation, and air pollution.
Some of these risk factors play a greater contributing role in early life rather than late life. For example, having less education is a more prominent risk factor in early life. Risk factors like social isolation, air pollution, and untreated vision loss are greater risk factors in late life, while the other risk factors pose a greater risk in midlife.
“In short, these factors put a person at higher or lower risk of developing dementia,” Carol Brayne, professor of public health medicine at the University of Cambridge, and her doctoral student Seb Walsh told The Epoch Times over email.