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With approximately 44 million individuals worldwide suffering from dementia, protecting yourself against this long term brain disease should be a major concern.
What’s even more alarming is that the number of cases of Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia will rise to 135 million by 2050, as predicted by the campaign group Alzheimer’s Disease International.
A recent study showed that healthy eating, brain training, and exercise can slow down cognitive decline. Previously, cognitive decline has been tagged as the precursor to dementia, which refers to brain diseases linked to decline in mental ability.
In order to prove this, the researchers observed 1260 individuals aged 60 to 77 who are at risk of mental decline. Individuals who followed an intensive scheme containing all the three factors for two years had 25% better scores in the Neuropsychological Test Battery compared to individuals following usual health advice.
Their study, which was published in the Lancet medical journal also showed that the ability to organise and regulate thought processes were 83% higher among individuals who followed the intensive scheme.
“Our study is the first to show a programme aimed at addressing risk factors might prevent cognitive decline,” said Prof Miia Kivipelto of Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
For the next 7 years, the study participants will be observed to prove if decreased cognitive decline will result to fewer cases of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Still, further studies must be done to identify which among the three interventions provide the greatest benefit.
“The initial results are promising and suggest that a combination of improving cardiovascular health and keeping mentally active could slow decline in some aspects of our thinking, but it’s unclear which of the interventions carried the greatest benefit,” said Dr Simon Ridley of Alzheimer’s Research UK.
