New research has found that certain lifestyle and health factors—such as education level, body weight, and blood pressure—can influence the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by affecting how quickly harmful tau tangles spread in the brain. These tangles are one of the key features of Alzheimer’s and are closely linked to memory loss and cognitive decline.
The findings were presented at the 2025 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Annual Meeting and published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
The study builds on earlier research from The Lancet in 2024, which suggested that making changes to 14 known risk factors could potentially prevent nearly half of all dementia cases. This new study takes a deeper look at how some of those modifiable risks actually affect Alzheimer’s disease at a biological level.
Dr. Merle Hoenig, a postdoctoral researcher at the Juelich Research Center in Germany, led the research team. They analyzed data from 162 participants who had signs of amyloid buildup in their brains—a known early indicator of Alzheimer’s. Among them, 77 were still cognitively healthy, 55 had mild cognitive impairment, and 30 had already been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
All participants received advanced brain scans (called PET scans) that used a tracer known as 18F-AV-1451. This tracer highlights tau tangles in the brain. The team looked at two ways the tau pathology progressed over time: how far the tau tangles spread in the brain (called “tau-speed”), and how much they increased in specific areas (called “tau-level-rise”).
They then examined how these changes were affected by different personal factors. These included body mass index (BMI), level of education, severity of high blood pressure (hypertension), presence of mood or behavior symptoms, early tau or amyloid levels, genetic risk factors (like carrying the ApoE4 gene), sex, and age.
The study found that people with a higher BMI, lower education, and more severe hypertension tended to have a greater local buildup of tau tangles. This means that these factors may lead to a faster worsening of brain changes in specific areas.
On the other hand, the speed at which tau tangles spread across the brain seemed to be more influenced by genetics, particularly being female or carrying the ApoE4 gene, which is known to raise the risk of Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Hoenig emphasized that this research provides hope. She explained that even though we can’t change our genes, we can improve certain lifestyle and health factors. Keeping a healthy weight, managing blood pressure, and continuing education or mentally stimulating activities may help slow down the disease’s progression.
Importantly, the research also offers a new way to think about how Alzheimer’s spreads in the brain—both in how far and how fast the disease moves. These two separate aspects (tau-speed and tau-level-rise) could be useful for doctors and researchers when testing new Alzheimer’s treatments. It could also help tailor treatment strategies more effectively in the future.
Dr. Hoenig added that this approach of measuring both spread and buildup of disease using PET imaging might also apply to other areas of medicine, including cancer research, where understanding the pattern of disease spread is just as important.
In summary, this study strengthens the case for taking action on things we can control. By improving our health and lifestyle—especially keeping weight and blood pressure in check and staying mentally active—we may be able to slow down how quickly Alzheimer’s disease takes hold.
If you care about Alzheimer’s disease, please read studies about the protective power of dietary antioxidants against Alzheimer’s, and eating habits linked to higher Alzheimer’s risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that oral cannabis extract may help reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms, and Vitamin E may help prevent Parkinson’s disease.
The research findings can be found in Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Copyright © 2025 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
