Can You Prevent Dementia?

Studies suggest that apart from your age and genetic pool, which you cannot change or modify, most of the risk factors involved in the development of the disease are preventable. Not everyone who lives to be 80 or older develops Alzheimer’s disease or some other type of dementia, and certainly not everyone who has a relative who has the disease will develop it for sure. Therefore, there may be other risk factors involved that you can potentially modify to avoid causing progressive permanent damage to your brain.

For instance, studies suggest that a reduced risk of dementia is found in people who do not smoke, in those who consume alcohol moderately, and in those who consume a healthy dietwith less fat and sugar.

People who are not obese and have normal blood pressures and normal cholesterol levels are also less likely to become mentally impaired in their old age.

Furthermore, there are some causes of dementia that are potentially treatable. These include dementia that is related to chronic substance abuse, head injury, some brain tumors, nutritional deficiency, and other medical conditions. Studies have also suggested that patients who take certain medications for other medical conditions are less likely to develop dementia. These medications include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (for arthritis and other types of pain), estrogens (for post-menopausal women), statins (for high cholesterol), antihypertensives (for high blood pressure), and vitamin supplements (such as vitamins C, E and B complex). However, experts do not recommend taking these drugs for the purpose of preventing dementia since there are no studies that show evidence that they directly prevent the condition.

Assessing Your Risk Of Dementia

If you are wondering what your risk of developing dementia is, you may want to use some risk assessment tools, which scientists have prepared, based on available evidence. These tools can help you get an idea what your risk factors are, but they do not necessarily suggest that you will develop dementia in the future. 

One dementia assessment tool offered by The Copper Ridge Institute is an online memory survey, which is a self-assessment that also includes risk factors such as physical health, lifestyle factors, and sociodemographic factors. It does not diagnose, but helps to educate people on what contributes to dementia. At the end of the assessment, you can print the results of the survey and show it to your doctor for further guidance.

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Another simple tool proposed by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City is the test for motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR), wherein older patients who have memory complaints are asked to walk while timing their walking speed over eight to ten seconds. Patients who have a slow gait or a walking speed that is slower than one meter per second (about 2.2 miles per hour) may be at risk for developing dementia.