NHS expert: Healthy living could prevent a THIRD of dementia cases

As he hails Mail’s campaign on care costs...

TENS of thousands could avoid dementia by making basic changes to their lifestyle, according to a senior NHS doctor.

Professor Alistair Burns said up to a third of cases were potentially preventable as they were linked to diet, inactivity or poor brain health.

He stressed that a combination of ‘simple lifestyle interventions’ at any age would dramatically reduce a person’s risk.

These include learning a new language, walking a little further each day, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol levels and staying in touch with loved ones.

Professor Burns, the national clinical lead for dementia in the NHS, said these interventions would also help patients already diagnosed with the illness.

While exercise and social activities will not halt the disease’s biological advance, they can help alleviate the withdrawal and isolation that can come with it, he said.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics last week showed dementia is responsible for one in eight deaths. Around 850,000 adults live with the condition, which experts say is the ‘ biggest health crisis of our time’.

The Daily Mail launched a campaign last month urging the Government to end the scandal of families having to pay for their loved ones’ care.

Professor Burns, a psychiatrist who specialises in dementia, described the campaign as ‘important’.

He said: ‘ There are huge opportunities in terms of the potential of tens of thousands of people preventing dementia if we take some simple lifestyle interventions.

‘There’s no doubt that many people don’t realise that but I think things are changing. It’s never too early to start and it’s never too late to start.’

He added a good diet is ‘really important’, along with exercise. This could simply be choosing to walk up stairs or get off the train or bus a stop before your destination and walk the final stretch.

On alcohol, Professor Burns advised moderation, explaining: ‘What we say is a glass of wine a day prevents dementia, a bottle of wine gives you dementia.’ He also stressed the importance of family and friends, saying: ‘Keep up your social networks. Loneliness is a big issue – people who are lonely are twice as likely to develop dementia.’

Learning a new musical instrument or a language could also help.

Professor Burns said there were several risk factors that ‘tend to club together’, for example, high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and being overweight.

There are around 225,000 new diagnoses of dementia in England each year. If Professor Burns’ predictions are accurate, about 75,000 could potentially be prevented.

Referring to the impact of lifestyle changes on patients who already have dementia, he said: ‘After someone gets a diagnosis, they kind of withdraw into themselves.

‘But social networks – singing for the brain, swimming for the brain – are really important. It doesn’t slow down the biology of the disease but in terms of the effects, these things will be very helpful indeed.’

Professor Burns added: ‘Although NHS England recently recorded the highest monthly dementia diagnoses on record, there are still people living with dementia who do not have a diagnosis.

‘This is why the Daily Mail’s campaign is so important as it’s helping to raise awareness of the condition.’

‘It’s never too late to start’