There is more hope than “ever before” that nearly half of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed, experts say.
Lead author Professor Gill Livingston, from University College London, said the report “shows hope that we can prevent people getting dementia, and more than ever before”.
She told the PA news agency: “When I first became a doctor, and for some time after, we thought that dementia was just one of these things that hit you in a sort of relatively random way, and there was nothing that you could do. And if you were going to get it, you were going to get it."
“But, now we know that that’s not true, that even if you have genes which predispose you towards it, these lifestyle changes increase the number of years in good health, and it takes longer for you to get it. And for people in general, there’s a lot of things that you could individually do to reduce the chance of you getting dementia and increase the number of years that you have a healthy life."
Researchers have identified two new risks that can be tackled to reduce the chances of developing the condition. These are high cholesterol and vision loss. Addressing these factors - as well as 12 others - in childhood and throughout life, gives people the best chance of preventing or delaying dementia, even if they have high genetic risk, researchers said.
The two new factors that increase the chances of someone developing dementia add to the 12 previously identified by the Lancet Commission: lower levels of education, hearing impairment, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, excessive alcohol consumption, traumatic brain injury, air pollution and social isolation. These are linked with 40 percent of all dementia cases.
Writing in the report, which Alzheimer’s Research UK helped fund, the experts say: “The potential for prevention is high and, overall, nearly half of dementias could theoretically be prevented by eliminating these 14 risk factors. These findings provide hope.”
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