Alzheimer’s Disease is the leading cause of dementia we face today, particularly in the elderly population. It’s a progressive disease with no known cure, though some medications developed over the last decade have been shown to help symptoms in some people. Though there’s no cure right now, the medical community has been doing research into the disease for years, looking at a variety of possibilities.
While good treatment and a cure seem far off, there are a number of risk factors that have been discovered. Unfortunately, most are things that we can do nothing about. But scientists believe that there are some small things you can do to lower your risk.
The biggest risk factor for developing this disease is age. Unfortunately, the longer you live, the more likely you are to develop it. The risk of getting the disease before age 65 is relatively low but at age 70, the risk doubles. It then doubles again at age 75 and 80. By the time a person has reached 85, the risk of developing the disease is at about 50%. It’s by no means a certainty–many people never develop Alzheimer’s–but aging is the leading risk factor and one that has led scientists to look at the way the body ages and the chemical processes that take place in the elderly to try to find the cause.
Heredity plays another major role in those who develop this disease having one or more people in your immediate family who’ve developed the disease in the past, increases your chances of gaining it yourself. The more people who’ve developed Alzheimer’s, the more increased the risk of developing it. Scientists aren’t yet sure if it’s simple genetics alone or the fact that people in the same family are often exposed to the same environments. It could yet be a combination of both.
There are genetic factors that play a part, too. There are genes that have been found which indicate both risk of the disease, and that the person will develop it. There are several different genes that indicate a higher risk of developing it. The deterministic genes—those that show the person will get the disease, sometimes can be as young as 30s and 40s–which are rare, but they do exist.
Since age, family history and genetics are things we have no control over, what can be done about Alzheimer’s Disease from a daily living perspective? Overall good health can be beneficial, of course, and staying healthy as we age can help with many other diseases.
Three specific things that can help include protecting your head, keeping the cardiovascular and nervous system healthy and staying mentally active. While head trauma might not preventable in every case, you can lower your risk by wearing a seatbelt in the car, wearing helmets while bicycling and simply being careful everywhere you go. Head trauma can damage the brain and nervous system, and raise the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
Preventing dementia also means keeping your overall health in check. Keep your brain and cardiovascular system healthy by keeping high blood pressure and high cholesterol in check. These conditions, along with diabetes and heart disease, limit blood flow through our bodies and to our brains.
Finally, stay mentally active, especially as you age. While this may not prevent Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, studies have shown that people who think critically, solve puzzles and stay mentally vibrant tend to develop symptoms later and can manage them better.