Alzheimer’s disease strikes fear into all of us who desire healthy aging. The thought of surviving to an old age, but not being ourselves as we and our family and friends have always known and loved us is frightening.

There is some very recent good news on this subject. In early 2008, the Journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia reported a well-designed study that involves 14,000 people 70 years and older. The study compared the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in people in 1993-1995 to another group in 2002-2004. The incidence of the disease was 30 percent less in the group in 2002-2004.

What Are the Risks for Developing Alzheimer’s Disease?
The single largest predictor of this disease is age (Figure 1). Figure 1 shows the results from a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association that demonstrates the profound affect that age has on the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Genes also play a major role. People with the Alzheimer’s gene are predisposed to developing the disease. And, unfortunately, genes cannot be changed. However, a number of things can be done to forestall or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

What can we do to reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease?
Visiting your physician and controlling chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol are important strategies to reducing risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The role of the “statin” drugs is still controversial, but there is good data to show that controlling diabetes and hypertension is useful. There is no magic medicine that prevents Alzheimer’s disease. However, data shows that lifestyle decisions play an important role in prevention.

Increasing information, including the latest study mentioned at the beginning of this article, indicates that level of education (including continued ongoing education) seem to provide protection against Alzheimer’s disease. The National Institute of Aging recommends listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, playing puzzle games, and going to museums. Using brain power provides protection by increasing “cognitive reserve.” In other words, fine tuning your ability to think helps you withstand the memory problems that come with aging. This type of mind training is analogous to building up your stamina by training for physical activities.

Other activities that have proven useful in preventing Alzheimer’s disease are socialization and exercise. Exercise helps people focus their attention and work toward goals. Also, people who socialize with friends and acquaintances have a reduction in cognitive decline and risk of dementia. 

The bottom line is that as we age, we are at an increased risk of developing age related dementias. However, we can either slow this risk or prevent it! 

 
Figure 1 Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease by age group – from Hebert, L.E et al JAMA

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