What is Metabolic Syndrome?
Metabolic syndrome is a group of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
These conditions include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglyceride levels, and low levels of “good” cholesterol.
A large waist size is another marker. Around one in four adults worldwide live with metabolic syndrome, and it’s been a growing concern for health professionals.
The Study and Its Key Findings
Researchers from Oxford Population Health took a closer look at how metabolic syndrome might also be linked to dementia.
They analyzed health data from over 176,000 people who were part of the UK Biobank study.
All participants were at least 60 years old and did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. They were followed for 15 years to see who would develop dementia.
Here’s what they found:
Nearly half (42%) of the participants had metabolic syndrome at the beginning of the study.
The most common issues among them were high blood pressure, followed by high triglyceride levels, low levels of “good” cholesterol, a large waist size, and high blood sugar.
Of all the participants, 5,255 developed dementia over the study period.
People with metabolic syndrome had a 12% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those without it.
The more conditions from the metabolic syndrome list that someone had, the higher their risk of dementia. For example, having four or five of the conditions increased the risk by 19% and 50%, respectively.
Danial Qureshi, the study’s lead author, said, “Our study suggests that taking care of metabolic health could lower the risk of developing dementia later in life.
This is promising since all the conditions in metabolic syndrome can be improved through lifestyle changes or medication.”
Why This Matters
Dementia cases are on the rise globally, and there are limited effective treatments available.
The study’s findings add to the growing body of evidence that shows taking steps to improve metabolic health could help prevent dementia.
The study is especially significant because the risk was observed more than a decade before dementia was diagnosed, indicating that poor metabolic health could be a contributing factor to developing dementia, rather than just an outcome of the disease.
Dr. Thomas Littlejohns, another key researcher in the study, stated, “Our findings show that it’s not just one condition you need to watch out for; having multiple metabolic conditions elevates the risk even more.”
The researchers believe that these findings could lead to more targeted prevention strategies for dementia, focusing on managing metabolic health.
This could be a game-changer, especially when you consider how prevalent metabolic syndrome is and how the numbers of dementia cases are expected to rise. It’s more evidence that improving your overall health could also be good for your brain.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about a drug related to Viagra may help treat vascular dementia and findings of Scientists find link between body inflammation and dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about common exercises that could protect against cognitive decline, and results showing that this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, and prevent dementia.
The research findings can be found in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
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