Scientists from Vanderbilt University found that lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and sleep play an important role in reducing the risk of developing dementia.
They also found the factors that may contribute to the disproportionate burden of dementia in different population groups in the U.S.
The research is published in Neurology and was conducted by Danxia Yu et al.
The research is from the Southern Community Cohort Study, a long-term research study launched in 2001 to investigate the root causes of various diseases and health disparities.
Around 85,000 participants were recruited from community health centers in the southeastern U.S. and two-thirds of participants are Black.
The researchers used Medicare claims data to track Alzheimer’s diagnoses among participants over age 65.
In the first study, the team drew data from 17,209 older study participants, 1,694 of whom were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or related dementias during a follow-up of 4 years.
They assessed five lifestyle factors—smoking, alcohol use, leisure-time physical activity, sleep hours, and diet quality—both individually and in combination.
The team found that healthy choices (no smoking, high leisure-time exercise, low-to-moderate alcohol consumption, adequate sleep, and a high-quality diet) were linked to an 11-25% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
When combined, a composite score of those five lifestyle factors was linked to a 36% reduced risk.
In the second study, the team drew data from 14,500 older study participants, of whom 1,402 developed Alzheimer’s or related dementias.
In this group, they analyzed intakes of four major classes of dietary polyphenols—flavonoids, phenolic acids, stilbenes, and lignans—and their subclasses.
Polyphenols are a large class of compounds commonly found in tea, red wine, chocolate, berries, and other foods and have been associated with a variety of health benefits.
The team found a big difference in intake of polyphenols among racial groups, with White participants consuming a median of about twice the amount of total polyphenols as Black participants daily.
Overall there was no significant association between total dietary polyphenol intake and incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in either race;
however, certain flavonoids were associated with reduced risk among Black participants but not White participants.
The findings showed Black participants in the top quartile for tea consumption had a 28% lower incidence of Alzheimer’s than Black participants in the lowest quartile for tea consumption.
The team says that healthy lifestyles, including healthy eating, may help protect brain health by improving glucose and lipid metabolism and reducing inflammation and psychological stress.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about three risk factors that may have the biggest impact on dementia, and high blood pressure may lower dementia risk for some old adults.
For more information about dementia, please see recent studies that cataract removal may reduce the dementia risk by 30%, and results showing this metal may reduce risk of dementia.
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