How to prevent dementia by the world’s top scientists
For years doctors thought there was nothing you could do to stop it. But now that’s all changed – as the world’s top experts present the definitive guide to...
TODAY, and every day, roughly 190 Britons will die from dementia – about 1,350 every week – and numbers are steadily and ominously rising. It is by far our biggest killer, having overtaken heart disease five years ago as fatalities from heart attacks and strokes continue to decline. Within the next few years, more than one million Britons will be living with the degenerative brain condition.
It’s a statistic made all the more shocking when you consider that the dementia death toll is almost four times the number claimed each week at the moment by the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK.
But despite these grim figures there is hope, as the latest medical evidence suggests that whether you develop dementia is not simply down to fate.
Although incurable, a staggering 40 per cent
Living near a busy road increases the chance of dementia by 10%
of cases could be prevented in the first place, according to a global report revealed at the Alzheimer’s Association International Congress last week.
Lifestyle factors, such as diet, lack of exercise – and even hearing loss – are responsible for a whopping 340,000 of Britain’s 850,000 dementia cases, says the report. The leading scientists behind the new study identified 12 risk factors that make us more likely to develop the disease. Crucially, it’s within our power to address each one of them if we want to stay healthy into old age.
The risks begin to mount in childhood, the report said, but even making small lifestyle changes into your 70s could have a significant impact.
The report represents a huge leap forward in the understanding of the disease. Three years ago, the same research group became the first to prove how much of dementia is preventable, revealing the role of obesity, smoking, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Hearing loss, if untreated, depression and too little exercise also contribute to an individual’s risk, while lack of education and social isolation were also factors flagged by the experts.
Now, three more avoidable dangers have been added to that list based on new data: traumatic head injury, air pollution and heavy alcohol consumption.
The authors, from The Lancet’s Commission on Dementia, a group of international experts, say the findings should be a wake-up call for us all, and urged everyone to take responsibility for their own health. They said: ‘Around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by eliminating these risk factors.’ So what can we do? Well, making changes to diet and lifestyle has a significant effect, not just on reducing the chances of developing dementia but also keeping the mind sharper and younger.
A recent Swedish study found that being a healthy weight, keeping blood pressure in check and staying fit and active were three key factors found to significantly improve mental performance. More than 500 participants, aged 60 to 77, were advised to eat lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, fish and low-fat dairy, while exercise plans involved strength training at a gym plus group exercises to improve aerobic fitness, such as jogging and aerobics. The researchers followed them for two years and found they performed better in mental tests by the end, having boosted their overall health. Similar lifestyle changes were linked to a 37 per cent reduced dementia risk in another trial involving 3,000 volunteers. Indeed, just making a change to one area, such as giving up smoking, was found to have a big knock-on effect.
It’s something I take seriously, because I’ve seen first-hand how devastating dementia can be. I was 17 when my much-loved granny, Olive, died of the disease, aged 74, having spent two years being cared for by my mum, her only child, in our family home. Olive suffered from Lewy body dementia, the second most common type after Alzheimer’s, accounting for ten to 15 per cent of cases. Looking back now, the risk factors described by The Lancet’s Commission were all there. My grandfather Jimmy, married to Olive for 40 years, collapsed and died from an aortic aneurism aged 65, just two weeks after retiring from his job as a draughtsman at the Rolls-Royce plant in East Kilbride, south of Glasgow. Her world fell apart. In time, neighbours moved on. Friends passed away.
A fall meant she feared going out and she spent a lot of time alone in her empty house, staring out of the window. She began to forget to eat.
When she came to live with us in Fife, 80 miles away on the opposite coast of Scotland, the warm, adoring woman who’d doted on my two younger sisters and me was vanishing, bit by bit.
Every morning the house was woken by her fearful wails ‘Help me! Help’, as she opened her eyes and, again, had no idea where she was. Most painfully, she forgot she had a daughter or grandchildren. When it was explained to her gently one day, she sobbed bitterly: ‘No one ever told me I had a daughter.’
It’s a story that will no doubt resonate with thousands of British families, on whom the burden of care so often falls. The cost of treating and supporting the dementia population in the UK is £34.7billion a year, and it’s set to nearly treble by 2040. Unpaid carers, like my mum, save the economy a further £13.9billion a year.
Imagine if the emotional – and economic – burden could be lifted significantly. A one per cent reduction in dementia cases would mean 8,500 fewer people living with the disease. Eliminating all 12 risk factors, the report’s authors say, could save 340,000 from being struck by it – 40 per cent of the 850,000 people estimated to have dementia in the UK.
In this special Mail on Sunday Health section, we’ll explain how to reduce your risk – from looking at ways to combat heart disease and diabetes, to highlighting surprising methods of prevention, such as improving your hearing.
There is still much about dementia risk that science can’t explain, but there is cause for optimism. Armed with new knowledge, it’s never been more possible to alter the course of our later lives for the better.