Avoiding three common health issues in middle age has been linked to an average of 13 more years without dementia in later life. A study followed more than 12,000 people after assessing whether they had high blood pressure, diabetes, or smoked. After an average follow-up period of 26 years, 3,008 people developed dementia, and 5,238 people died without developing dementia.
People who had none of the three key risk factors lived an average of 13 more dementia-free survival years than those who had all three health risks. This meant that from the age of 55, people without diabetes or high blood pressure who did not smoke could expect to live an average of 30.1 more years free of dementia. This compares with just 17 years for those who had all three risk factors.
Senior investigator Dr Josef Coresh, director of the Optimal Aging Institute at NYU Langone, said: “Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade.
“People with all three risk factors were more likely to develop dementia or die at earlier ages from other causes, leading to shorter overall survival and fewer years with their thinking and memory abilities intact.”
High blood pressure is thought to harm tiny blood vessels that supply the brain and can also cause silent mini-strokes, which damage brain cells.
People with diabetes are also at increased risk of dementia, possibly due to increased risk of other related health problems such as obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Smoking similarly increases the risk of vascular problems affecting the heart and blood vessels. Toxins in cigarette smoke also cause inflammation and stress to cells, which have both been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, according to Alzheimer’s Society.
The study also found that women were likely to remain dementia-free for longer than men. Those with all three risk factors live for an average of 18.1 years without developing dementia, compared to 16.6 years for male participants.
Researchers stressed that the study was observational, so they could not prove that the absence of these risk factors caused the delay in dementia; it only showed an association.
But Dr Coresh added: “Hopefully these results will help encourage people to stop smoking, manage their blood sugar and manage their blood pressure in midlife. Of course, other healthy habits such as eating better and being more active are also important.”
The findings were published in Neurology Open Access, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
