Lifestyle changes to curb the risk of dementia
Recent medical research indicates that up to 50% of dementia risk factors are modifiable through lifestyle changes, challenging the previous belief that the condition is purely genetic. Experts emphasize that proactive health management can significantly reduce the likelihood of cognitive decline.
Why it matters
This shift in medical understanding empowers individuals to take preventative action against a major global health challenge.
We’re no longer considered hostages to neurodegeneration as we age.
Jean Joss (right) counters the effects of ageing on cognition with tea and conversation. Janie Barrett Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.
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Share A A A Until last decade, dementia was regarded as a grim lottery. If you made it into your twilight years, you’d wait and see if it came for you. If you carried a gene linked to Alzheimer’s, it was your destiny. Medical science could offer no treatment and there was nothing you could do as an individual to lower your risk.
This fatalism wasn’t borne of ignorance. The world-leading National Institutes of Research laid out this dispiriting position at its Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Decline conference in 2010.
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