Dr. Zova Pastor: Reduce Your Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease with These Five Healthy Life Tips | Madison.com Health, Sports Health & Fitness

The question I always get is, “How can I get older without having Alzheimer’s disease?” Dementia and memory loss are big problems when it comes to living the long and sweet life we ​​long for.

Is there a 100% sure way to prevent that? Obviously not. Is there anything I can do to reduce the risk? of course. what are they? That is the problem.

Let’s compare this to a car accident. When I was a kid, car accidents killed more people than they do now, and today there are far more people driving in the United States. Better cars with seat belts, crushable zones, airbags, better tires and more. And don’t forget about other big social changes. All these things made a difference. We can’t prevent car accidents, but we’ve significantly reduced them.

The same is true for aging. Things are different than before.

A recent study published in the British Medical Journal points out that a healthy lifestyle not only gives you longevity, but also reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s like I’m interested. If it has a long life, I would like to make it robust.

Researchers looked at data from about 2,500 people over the age of 65 who had no history of dementia. This was part of a 27-year large-scale long-term study of Chicago’s Health and Aging Project. The goal was to see how aging people are particularly interested in Alzheimer’s disease. Over the years, people have completed detailed lifestyle surveys.

Participants were encouraged to:

• I spend 150 hours a week on physical activity. So 20 minutes of walking a day, gardening and, of course, a vacuum cleaner are also important. You don’t have to ride a treadmill to move.
• Follow the Mediterranean Dash Diet (a diet to prevent high blood pressure) with a diet rich in whole grains, green leafy vegetables, berries, and low in fast food, fried foods, and lean meats.
• Engage in cognitive activities such as reading, drawing, thought-provoking conversations, crosswords and other puzzles, nature walks, museum visits, all kinds of learning, and critical thinking. Basically, instead of watching TV or movies, you actively use your mind. passive.
• Stop smoking.
• Limit the use of alcohol. If you consume alcohol, drink moderately — 1-2 glasses a day.

For each lifestyle factor, participants received a score of 1 if they met the health criteria and a score of 0 if they did not. Sum the scores of the five lifestyle factors to get a final score in the range 0-5, with higher scores indicating a healthier lifestyle. It’s a simple math, a simple evaluation.

After considering other potentially influential factors such as age, gender, education and finances, researchers found that life expectancy for people with a healthy lifestyle averages about 24 years for women. I found out that I am 23 years old in a man.

For those with an unhealthy lifestyle, it has dropped to another 21 years for women and 17 years for men. This is a clincher. When we looked at who had Alzheimer’s disease, about 10% of women who lived a healthy life developed Alzheimer’s disease, but if they didn’t live well, it doubled to 20%. .. The same thing happened to men. Six percent of properly-lived men developed Alzheimer’s disease, but men with low lifestyle scores doubled to 12%.

So what does this mean to you? First, if you live well, you are still at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but women have a 90% chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease and men have a 94% chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease. .. Not bad, really.

My spin: Lifestyle is clearly associated with Alzheimer’s disease. By eating properly, exercising, using your brain, not smoking, and not drinking too much, you can live a longer life and are more likely to have this catastrophic illness-free life. The steps you have taken now can be rewarded with great rewards in the future. Stay healthy.