Keeping your marbles – Steps to Prevent Dementia

Steps to Prevent Dementia

What are you doing to prevent dementia? Yes, you can reduce your risk!

An influential report, the Lancet Commission Report of Dementia Prevention,  updated in 2024, details 14 risk-reducing steps. I have 3 steps to add to that list.

Why bother?

Dementia is a big problem that you don’t want to get:

• It affects a large number of people, and it is devastating. Over age 65, there are 1 in 14 people with dementia, and for over 80’s it rises to 1 in 6. 
• Women are twice as likely to suffer.
• Dementia is currently the most important contributor to death in the United Kingdom, ahead of heart disease and stroke.

What do you need to do?

Tackle the problems: these 17 risk factors are all modifiable and allow you to reduce your risk of dementia by at least 50%, and at the minimum, delay the onset. Worth doing, don't you think? Addressing some personal weaknesses, keeping slim and active with all your health issues under optimum control will make the difference.

 

The risk factors fall into 5 groups, 4 you can work on ie poisons, social isolation, lifestyle medical issues, major medical metabolic problems, and the public health issues that are less controllable. The additional steps are taking HRT/TRT, perfect oral hygiene and shingles control.

Medium Chain Triglyceride Oil

Why MCT oil can be beneficial

There is proven value in weight control, migraine and cluster headache, Minimal Cognitive Impairment [MCI], and in achieving muscle gain in frailty management.

Although there are many internet claims of sleep improvement there are no human studies of value to prove this.

Dementia Prevention

You are aware of the curse of dementia [mainly as Alzheimer’s Disease – AD] either as a risk of ageing or more powerfully because of personal experience of a sufferer.

There IS an inherited ie genetic component related principally to the APOE e4 gene. But lots of people who have the gene don’t get AD. The important information is not whether you have the gene [so don’t rush to get a test] but whether the gene is switched on - this is called gene expression.

Reducing Cardiovascular Risk – Blood pressure

Focus on… Self-Management

A normal blood pressure [BP] is 120/80 such as you would have in your 30’s.

This matters because …

BP is a silent killer; you can’t tell from how you feel whether your BP is normal or dangerously sky-high. Raised BP is part of the metabolic syndrome [insulin resistance + raised BP + abnormal cholesterol pattern + prediabetic change] associated with mid-abdominal weight gain and major cause of cardiovascular risk [heart attack and stroke].

Curcumin - The Mellow Yellow Health Tool

Focus on...

Some more detailed examination of the benefits of curcumin and the problems with formulation.

Why is this useful?

There are lots of necessary supplements for the over 50’s [protein, ‘Vitamin’ D, vitamins B12 and B9 [Folate], Magnesium, Zinc …] At this point if you have followed my recommendations, you are rattling and considering the expense.

So when it comes to other additional agents, they must be really beneficial.

Curcumin [one of the active ingredients in dietary turmeric -that golden spice that stains your kitchen yellow when you have a curry] should definitely be on your list.

But … eating more Curry is not the answer.

More microbiome news … Urinary Tract Infection

Focus on:

The causes of UTI, why it matters and looking especially at recurrent UTI in postmenopausal women and in men with poor urine flow due to benign prostatic hyperplasia [BPH]. All these lessons are equally applicable to your daughters.

This matters, because…

Urinary infection is dangerous: either in your parents, or if you are 65+ for you, too.

If there is a UTI and delay in diagnosis; or antibiotics are either not prescribed or deferred, then 25-30% [ 5-6 in 200] end up in hospital, about 1 in every 200 have septicaemia and overall 2% [4 in 200] die, but that rises to 5.4% [11 in 200] of the untreated who may not get even get to hospital i. The authors say…

It’s a Bug’s Life: offer love and take care of your microbiome

You have more bacteria about you - on your skin, in your gut and all the other nooks and crannies – than there are actual human cells in your body. More importantly they do stuff that matters. Whether that is for good, or evil depends on which bacteria are in your particular crowd. This matters for the critical aims we have in respect of longevity. The goal in its simplest terms is reduce inflammaging and prevent dementia, mainly Alzheimer’s Disease [AD]. But apart from the relationship between the mouth microbiome and AD the inflammation associated with a bad microbiome in the gut triggers AD, heart disease, atopic conditions such as asthma, eczema and rhinitis, irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel disease and is a contributing cause for obesity.

Ultra-Processed Foods

All Ultra-processed foods are problematic, even plant-based options

It seems so easy, so modern-day! After a busy workday, your ready meal is in and out of the microwave in 7 minutes. Well - that really helps! Unfortunately, speedy food is not always healthy food.

How to MAXIMISE your healthspan and have a Diamond Life

Your Diamond Life

Not in the sense being rich materially, but rich in good 'quality of life' years. So your HealthSpan is the good years, your LifeSpan the total including those bad end-of-life years you have seen others have.

Want help you to limit the effects of ageing and maximise your HealthSpan?