From the first moment I discovered my dad
had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it seemed like I was alone in this ugly
place. Even ones who had loved ones suffering in this way; even though people TALKED
about the disease, it felt for me like they did little more than mumble about the
experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I added a section to this
blog…
Every month, I’ll be highlighting Alzheimer’s
research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites, journals
and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and share them
with you. Today: What factors increase Alzheimer’s risk?
I’m going to start with the end. After skimming through the published
paper online at Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry,
2020, I found that researchers concluded: “Twenty-one clinical evidence-based
suggestions are proposed, offering clinicians and stakeholders an
evidence-based guideline for AD prevention. With credible though inconclusive
evidence, the suggestions targeted 10 risk factors including diabetes,
hyperhomocysteinaemia, poor BMI management, reduced education, hypertension in
midlife, orthostatic hypotension, head trauma, less cognitive activity, stress
and depression.”
So, what does that mean in English? The site, ScienceDaily works to make
complex research understandable – but as a sort of “summarization” site, that’s
not always helpful. So here, I combine information from both sites. This will
definitely be helpful for me, I hope it grants you some insight and allows for
some targeted planning.
“From analysing
these, they proposed 21 suggestions based on the consolidated evidence
available that could be used in practice by clinicians to try to prevent
Alzheimer's disease.
“Within these,
there were what they referred to as "Class I" suggestions to target
19 different factors.
“Nearly two-thirds
of these suggestions would involve targeting vascular risk factors (such as
high blood pressure and cholesterol levels) and lifestyle, strengthening the
importance of keeping healthy to prevent Alzheimer's disease.
“Ten of the
suggestions were backed by strong evidence and included receiving
as much education as possible in early life, participating in mentally stimulating
activities such as reading, avoiding diabetes, stress, depression, head trauma,
and high blood pressure in midlife.
“A further nine
suggestions had slightly weaker evidence to support them and included regular
physical exercise, getting sufficient good quality sleep, maintaining a healthy
body weight and good heart health in later life, avoiding smoking, and
including vitamin C in the diet.”
Given the above, I STILL couldn’t find an easy-to-read list of the “21
suggestions”, so I’ve distilled them for you below:
Six Factors that Protect Against Alzheimer’s Disease
Stay healthy (Duh…)
Receive as much education as possible in early life (This is REALLY
vague…) [Thought for further study: is AD more common among people with less
education?]
Do mentally stimulating stuff, like reading
Maintain a healthy body weight
Include Vitamin C in your diet
Exercise regularly
14 Factors That Increase the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease
High blood pressure AND cholesterol
Stroke
Atrial Fibrillation
Diabetes
Stress
Depression (easier said than done…)
Avoid head trauma (duh…)
Control your blood pressure
Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular Disease
Maintain good heart health (What’s THAT mean?)
Smoking
Hyperhomocysteinemia (an amino acid that gets into the blood from
eating too much meat damaging blood vessels and causing a host of problems with
you cardiovascular system)
Disturbed sleep
Cerebral microbleeds (related to strokes)
Common Carotid IMT (what you have before the doctor says you have
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
The chart above does
a good job of showing the list in a visual format. I found it a good tool and
will refer to it often!
Resources: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200720190920.htm,
(the actual article) https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/early/2020/06/01/jnnp-2019-321913
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