According to World health Organisation (WHO) more than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia and every year they register approximately 10 million new cases.
In this regard, a group of researchers has decided to focus on the issue to analyze what might be the risk factors that could lead to the onset of this disorder. The author of the research question is the Professor Pamela Rist of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Boston. Thanks to the detection of 7 healthy habits which are drawn up in a list, the opinion of the scholars is that of being able to prevent a large number of people from falling ill.
What is the study about?
As Dr. Rist stated, “Since we now know that dementia can start in the brain decades before diagnosis, it’s important that we learn more about how your habits in midlife can affect your risk of dementia in later life,” she said. added that “the good news is that making healthy lifestyle choices in midlife can lead to a decreased risk of dementia later in life.”
The study involved a sample of 13,720 women aged around 54 at the start of the research. After a continuous update on the same lasted about 20 years, the results have been analysed. About 1,771 women fell ill with dementia, therefore 13% of the initial sample.
The most frequent symptoms indicating the onset of the disease are memory loss, confusion, trouble speaking and – in the most extreme cases – need help to carry out daily tasks.
The variables used to study the difference that could have occurred between the various women are 7 and include:
- Lifestyle active
- Diet healthy and balanced
- Checking the weight
- no to smoke
- Keep one blood pressure normal
- Check the cholesterol
- Keep the low blood sugar level
For each of these factors a score between 0 and 1 was assigned, where 0 indicated one very low or intermediate level of health, While 1 represented a good level of retention of values.
The average result obtained by adding up the scores of all the women was around 4.3, insufficient and far below the average. But despite this, this was not the result of interest to the research group, which instead focused on the importance of the individual variables. For every 1 point increase in the scale of lifestyle identified by the 7 factors, the risk of dementia would appear to lower us by about 6%.
An incredible result if you think that with a correct balance between all 7 factors a person could partially or totally avoid the onset of a corrosive disease such as that of dementia.
In this regard, the professor Pamela Rist He said: “It can be helpful for people to know that taking steps like exercising for half an hour a day or keeping their blood pressure under control can reduce their risk of dementia.” The new study will then be presented at the annual meeting of theAmerican Academy of Neurology which will take place in Boston.