Seeds of dementia sowed in adolescence?

A person’s chance of getting dementia before age 65, or young-onset dementia, may develop as early as adolescence, according to a study that suggests teens with high blood pressure or who drink excessively are at risk.

Other risk factors for dementia include stroke, use of antipsychotics, father’s dementia, drug intoxication, as well as short stature and low cognitive function, according to a study of Swedish men published by the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The finding bolsters research efforts that have begun to look at healthy people to discover who may be at risk for dementia in the future. The study released this week also suggests that latelife illness can be foreshadowed in youth.

“The idea of lifelong factors playing a role, that activities and behaviours at an early age matter, seems intuitive,” said Heather Snyder, the director of medical and scientific operations for the U.S. Alzheimer’s Association. “There may be other types of public health interventions that can be incorporated” in dementia prevention, she said.

The study also helps confirm some risk factors discovered in previous research. Having a close family member who suffers from dementia, low cognitive function and alcohol abuse are known to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, said Snyder, who wasn’t involved in the study.

In the study, Swedish scientists followed more than 480,000 men conscripted for military service from September 1969 to December 1979. The average age at first examination was 18. Over the course of 37 years, 487 of the men developed dementia at a median age of 54.

The study is limited because it didn’t include women.