Dementia is becoming a growing societal burden throughout the world, especially in the industrialized world where increase longevity results in larger numbers of people experiencing dementia. So far, advances in medical treatments to mitigate this burden have been modest, at best.There are known genetic risk factors for Alzheimers and frontotemporal lobe dementia. I’ve had my genome sequenced and I have none of the currently recognized variants associated with elevated dementia risk. Of course, none of us can control our genetics. But there are environmental inputs to dementia risk that we can control for ourselves, regardless of our genome makeup.“The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care has raised the number of modifiable
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Joel Eissenberg considers the following as important: dementia risk, Healthcare, US EConomics
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There are known genetic risk factors for Alzheimers and frontotemporal lobe dementia. I’ve had my genome sequenced and I have none of the currently recognized variants associated with elevated dementia risk. Of course, none of us can control our genetics. But there are environmental inputs to dementia risk that we can control for ourselves, regardless of our genome makeup.
“The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care has raised the number of modifiable risk factors definitively linked to cognitive loss to 14, based on research conducted since its last update in 2020.”
“The 14 factors include:
• Education
• Hearing loss
• Depression
• Head trauma from sports and bike riding
• Physical activity
• Smoking
• Hypertension
• Obesity
• Type 2 diabetes
• Alcohol drinking
• Social isolation
• Air pollution
• Vision loss
• High LDL
“If all of these were fully addressed — providing higher education to everyone, ending obesity, making helmet use mandatory for youth, eliminating air pollution, etc. — worldwide risk for dementia would fall by 45%, the commission found in its review of nearly 600 scientific publications.”
Each of these factors has a different impact on risk. Read the link for more details. Of course, addressing these factors will have positive externalities for your health beyond reducing dementia risk.