With no cure in sight for Alzheimer’s Disease, it is more important than ever to figure out the best ways to prevent it!
A study presented on Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in France has identified 7 lifestyle factors that cause HALF of the 35 million Alzheimer’s cases worldwide.
Researchers found smoking, depression, low education, diabetes, too little exercise, obesity and high blood pressure in mid-life all contribute to a diagnosis for the degenerative brain disease.
The impact of each risk factor depends on how common it is as well as how strongly it affects dementia risk.
For example, education is the biggest cause worldwide because illiteracy is so common. A lack of education prevents people from understanding proper nutrition or health information that can lead to obesity or diabetes.
In the U.S. however, education wasn’t nearly as big of a risk factor as the third of our population that does not exercise enough. Depression followed a sedentary lifestyle with smoking and high blood pressure in mid-life coming in third and fourth.
The good news is…these are all preventable!
In fact, researchers estimated if the population reduced these risk factors by 25% there would be 3 million fewer cases of Alzheimer’s worldwide and half a million fewer in the U.S.
Don’t become a statistic! Do your body and your brain a favor by getting up and exercising more!
[Image via AP Images.]
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