9 Preventable Contributors to Dementia

Over one third of dementia cases are potentially preventable!  That’s right.  According to a study published July 2017 in The Lancet 24 leading experts from around the world found 35% of cases may be preventable. What are the nine risk factors you ask?  They are less childhood education, hearing loss, hypertension, obesity, smoking, diabetes, depression, physical inactivity and social isolation.  In addition to these factors there are two others which increase risk.  They are pollution and vision loss.  This is good news!  But wait.  How do you address all of these indicators enough to shift the trajectory of a disease like dementia?

Fortunately, preventive health tactics are catching on.  Pretty much everyone is aware that smoking is bad for your health including those still lighting up and the number of smokers has dropped significantly over the years.  It is well known that you need to control your weight in order to combat hypertension, diabetes and obesity.  What’s good for the body is good for the brain.  This discussion inevitably comes back to diet.  In order to truly tackle diet we have a huge battle ahead akin to that fought with Big Tobacco.  We will need to subdue the beast that is Big Food!  For decades huge food corporations and conglomerates have given us quick, easy, even cheap alternatives to healthy fresh foods and we have sacrificed our wellbeing at the altar of convenience.

What about early childhood education?  How do you ensure that young kids get what they need early on for a sharp mind later?  I’m not sure we yet know how much is adequate but we do know that education standards can vary greatly across nations and implementing minimum standards for lifelong health would be helpful.

The symptoms of hearing and vision loss can have similar impacts.  If you are unable to hear or see to a level that enables you to engage in and enjoy the world around you it can feed into other risk factors like depression and social isolation.  Social isolation and depression can lead to becoming sedentary.  Even without exacerbating vision or hearing loss depression, social isolation and physical inactivity can be difficult issues to overcome as we age especially if we are dealing with illness, pain or dementia.

What about pollution? You would have to have been living under a rock lately to not realize the enormous impact of pollution.  Everyone is talking about storms, heat waves, floods and fires…  It’s a veritable apocalypse out there; all of which boils down to pollution in some form.  It’s everywhere.  In our air, our water, our soil, how could it not feature in our health?

You may be thinking we could add one more risk factor to this list.  Did you say poverty?  Quality education (at all stages), access to healthy food, being able to purchase aids to improve vision or hearing, affording social, cultural or physical fitness activities that make us feel happy and connected are often linked to economic status.

So… 9 plus 2 plus 1 more equals a big challenge.  Each component is entwined with the other.  One foot forward two steps back but at least there’s hope.  Being aware is the first step towards a solution!

 Marjorie Moulton, Executive Director
We Rage We Weep Alzheimer Foundation
and Dementia Care Consultant drmmoulton@werageweweep.com
https://www.dementiaconsulting.ca