Many people think dementia is something we cannot prevent, but new research shows that almost half of all dementia cases are linked to risk factors we can control.
A new study from Lund University in Sweden explains how different lifestyle choices affect the brain in ways that may lead to two common types of dementia—Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
Dementia itself is not one single disease. It is a set of symptoms caused by changes in the brain, such as memory loss, confusion, and difficulty thinking clearly. These symptoms can come from several different conditions.
The two most common ones are Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Alzheimer’s is linked to the buildup of harmful proteins in the brain, while vascular dementia is related to problems with blood flow in the brain.
Some factors that raise the risk of dementia are things we cannot change, like age, gender, and genetics. However, many risk factors are related to lifestyle and can be changed.
These include smoking, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, lack of exercise, drinking too much alcohol, hearing loss, and heart disease. Understanding how these risk factors affect the brain is important if we want to delay or reduce the risk of dementia.
In this new study, researchers followed almost 500 people around the age of 65 for four years. None of them had dementia when the study began, and their thinking and memory were still normal. The goal was to see how both changeable and unchangeable risk factors affected the brain over time.
The researchers looked at two main things: white matter in the brain, which is often damaged in vascular dementia, and two proteins called amyloid beta and tau, which are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
They found that people with unhealthy habits—such as smoking, having heart problems, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure—were more likely to develop changes in their brain’s white matter. These changes reduce blood flow and damage small blood vessels in the brain.
Over time, this can lead to vascular dementia. The damage was more common and progressed faster in people with these modifiable risk factors.
The researchers also found that diabetes was linked to a faster buildup of amyloid beta, one of the harmful proteins seen in Alzheimer’s. Interestingly, people with lower body weight (BMI) had more buildup of tau, another protein that harms brain cells.
These findings about diabetes and body weight need more research, but they suggest that Alzheimer’s disease may also be influenced by lifestyle factors.
This study adds to growing evidence that a healthy lifestyle can protect the brain. Many people with dementia have a mix of both Alzheimer’s and vascular problems in the brain. This means that even if we cannot stop Alzheimer’s completely, we might be able to slow it down by improving blood flow and reducing damage to blood vessels.
Sebastian Palmqvist, one of the lead researchers, points out that focusing on heart and metabolic health—like managing blood pressure and blood sugar—can help reduce the effects of different types of brain damage that happen at the same time.
In conclusion, while we can’t change our age or genes, we can make healthy choices that reduce the risk of dementia.
Quitting smoking, eating well, staying active, and managing medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes may delay the start of memory problems and protect brain function longer. More studies are needed, but this research offers hope that simple lifestyle changes can make a real difference.
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The study is published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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