A large population-based study suggests that adherence to six healthy lifestyle habits is associated with slower memory decline in older adults.
Researchers found that a healthy diet, cognitive activity, regular exercise, smoking cessation, and alcohol abstinence were significantly associated with slowing cognitive decline. APOE4 Status.
After adjusting for health and socioeconomic factors, the researchers found that individual healthy behaviors were associated with slower-than-average memory decline over a decade or more. Diet was the strongest deterrent, followed by cognitive activity and exercise.
“A healthy lifestyle is associated with slower memory decline. APOE4 Alleles,” wrote the researchers, led by Jianping Jia, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurology and Neurological Disease Innovation Center, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
“This study may provide important information for protecting older adults from memory decline,” they add.
research is publish online January 25th BMJ.
prevent memory loss
The research team points out that memory “continues to decline with age,” but that age-related decline in memory is not necessarily a precursor to dementia, and may be “forgetfulness due to aging.” are doing.This is called “reverse or [can] Stay stable instead of progressing into a morbid state.
Factors that affect memory include aging, APOE4 Lifestyle, including genotypes, chronic diseases and lifestyle patterns, is “increasingly viewed as a modifiable behavior.”
Despite this, few studies have focused on the impact of lifestyle on memory. And they were mostly cross-cutting and “did not consider the interplay between healthy lifestyles and genetic risk,” the researchers noted.
To investigate, researchers conducted a longitudinal study known as the Chinese Cognitive and Aging Study, which considered genetic risk and lifestyle factors.
This study started in 2009 and ended in 2019. Participants were evaluated and underwent neuropsychological testing in 2012, 2014, 2016, and study conclusions.
Participants (n = 29,072; mean [SD] Age, 72.23 [6.61] years; 48.54% female; 20.43% APOE4 carriers) had to have normal cognitive function at baseline.Data from people with advanced disease mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia during the follow-up period were excluded after diagnosis.
The Mini–Mental State Examination was used to assess global cognitive function. Memory function was assessed using the World Health Organization/University of California, Los Angeles Auditory Verbal Learning Test.
A “lifestyle” consists of six modifiable elements:
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Exercise (frequency and total time per week)
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Smoking (current, former, or nonsmoker)
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Alcohol consumption (never drink, occasional drink, light to heavy drink, and heavy drink)
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Diet (12 daily intakes of fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy products, salt, oil, eggs, grains, legumes, nuts, and tea)
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Cognitive activities (writing, reading, cards, mahjong, other games)
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Social contact (attending meetings, attending parties, visiting friends/relatives, traveling, chatting online)
Participants’ lifestyles were scored based on the number of health factors they participated in.
| Lifestyle | number of normal factors | number of participants |
|---|---|---|
| preferable | 4 – 6 | 5556 |
| average | twenty three | 16,549 |
| Unfavorable | 1 – 2 | 6967 |
Participants also appointment genotype to APOE4 carrier and non-carrier.
Items of demographic and other health information, including the presence of medical conditions, were used as covariates. The researchers also included the ‘learning effect of each participant with repeated cognitive assessments’ as a covariate.
important to public health
Over the 10-year period, 7,164 participants died and 3,567 dropped out.
Participants in the favorable and average groups experienced slower memory decline with increasing age (0.007 [0.005 – 0.009], P. < .001; and 0.002 [0 .000 – 0.003], P. = 0.033 points higher), compared to those in the disadvantaged group.
A healthy diet had the strongest protective effect on memory.
| lifestyle factors | β (95% confidence interval) | P. worth |
|---|---|---|
| healthy diet | 0.016 (.014 – 0.017) | < .001 |
| active cognitive activity | 0.010 (.008 – 0.012) | < .001 |
| regular exercise | 0.007 (.005 – 0.009) | < .001 |
| positive social contact | 0.004 (.002 – 0.006) | < .001 |
| Never smoked/have never smoked before | 0.004 (.000 – 0.008) | = .026 |
| never drink | 0.002 (0.000 – 0.004) | = .048 |
low memory APOE4 versus nonAPOE4 Career (0.002 points/year [95% CI, 0.001 – 0.003]; P. = .007).
But APOE4 Carriers with good, average lifestyles had slower memory decline (0.027 [0.023 – 0.031] and 0.014 [0.010 – 0.019], respectively), compared to people with disadvantaged lifestyles.Similar findings wereAPOE4 career.
People with favorable or average lifestyles were nearly 90% and 30% less likely to develop dementia or MCI, respectively, compared to those with unfavorable lifestyles.
The authors acknowledge the limitations of this study, including the observational design and possible measurement errors due to self-reporting of lifestyle factors. Additionally, some participants did not return for follow-up assessments, which could have resulted in selection bias.
Nonetheless, the findings “may provide important information for public health to protect older adults from memory decline,” they noted, noting that the study, in particular, “does not address these effects.” , APOE4 allele. “
“Important and Reassuring” Research
Comments on Medscape Medical NewsDr. Severine Sabia, senior researcher at the INSERM Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Medicalé at the University of Paris, France, called the findings “important and encouraging.”
But Sabia, who was not involved in the study, said, “There remain significant research questions that need to be investigated to identify key behaviors, which combinations, risk cutoffs and when to intervene.” said.
Future research on prevention “needs to explore possible risk factors more extensively” and “identifies specific exposures associated with greatest risk, also considering risk thresholds and age at the time of each exposure”. “is needed.
In an accompanying editorial, Sabia and co-author Archana Singh-Manoux, PhD, point out that the risk of cognitive decline and dementia is likely determined by multiple factors.
They liken it to “the multifactorial risk paradigm introduced by the Framingham study” that “led to a significant reduction in cardiovascular disease.” A similar approach could be used to prevent dementia, they suggest.
This research was funded by a major project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. National key scientific instruments and equipment development projects. A major project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Beijing Scholars Program. Beijing Brain Initiative of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission. CHINACANADA Joint Initiative Alzheimer’s disease and related diseases; mission program of the Beijing Municipal Hospital Administration. China National Natural Science Foundation; China National Science and Technology Foundation; Beijing Natural Science Foundation. A major project of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission. and the voyage plan of the Beijing Municipal Hospital Administration. The authors received support from Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University for their submitted work. One of the authors received a grant from the French National Research Institute. The other authors have not disclosed relevant financial relationships. Sabia received a grant from the French National Research Institute. Singh-Manoux received a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging.
BMJ. Published online on January 25, 2023. full text, editorial
Batya Swift Yasgur, Massachusetts, LSW is a freelance writer in counseling in Teaneck, NJ. She is a regular contributor to numerous medical publications, including Medscape and her WebMD, as well as consumer health books and publications such as Behind the Burqa: Our Lives in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom. Memoirs of a Brave Afghan Sister Who Told Her).
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