In a recent study supported by NIH, researchers found that combining more healthy lifestyle behaviors may help substantially lower the risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Those who adhered to four or all of the five specified healthy behaviors have a 60% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The behaviors were physical activity, not smoking, light-to-moderate alcohol consumption, a high-quality diet, and cognitive activities.
Previous studies have shown that lifestyle factors such as increasing physical activity, along with blood pressure management and cognitive training, may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. But the evidence is inconclusive.
In the current study, the team examined the data from two NIA-funded longitudinal study populations: The Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) and the Memory and Aging Project (MAP).
They selected participants from those studies who had data available on their diet, lifestyle factors, genetics, and clinical assessments for Alzheimer’s disease.
The study included data from nearly 3,000 research participants (1,845 participants from CHAP and 920 from MAP).
The researchers scored each participant based on five healthy lifestyle factors, all of which have important health benefits:
- At least 150 minutes per week of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity — Physical activity is an important part of healthy aging.
- Not smoking — Established research has confirmed that even in people 60 or older who have been smoking for decades, quitting will improve health.
- Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption — Limiting the use of alcohol may help cognitive health.
- A high-quality, Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, which combines the Mediterranean diet and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet — The MIND diet focuses on plant-based foods linked to dementia prevention.
- Engagement in late-life cognitive activities — Being intellectually engaged by keeping the mind active may benefit the brain.
The research team then compared the scores with outcomes of clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in the CHAP and MAP participants.
They found that compared to participants with no or one healthy lifestyle factors, the risk of Alzheimer’s was 37% lower in those with two to three, and 60% lower in those with four to five healthy lifestyle factors.
The findings provide more evidence on how a combination of modifiable behaviors may mitigate Alzheimer’s disease risk.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about critical time window to halt Alzheimer’s disease, and drug that could protect cognitive functions in Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about COVID-related brain damage more likely in these people, and results showing that one year of this exercise training may reduce risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The study was conducted by Dhana K et al., and published in Neurology.
