- About two-thirds of people with dementia are women.
- Researchers say women can lower their risk of disease by adopting seven healthy lifestyle habits recommended by the American Heart Association.
- Daily habits include being active and having things in balance. diet, Maintain healthy blood pressure.
Women who follow seven healthy habits may have a lower risk of developing dementia, according to new research presented at the American Academy of Neurology.th Annual meeting this week.
In their study, researchers followed 13,720 women for 20 years and analyzed their risk of developing dementia. They looked at Medicare claims at the end of the study to determine who had the diagnosis.
Women received scores for seven health factors. 0 corresponds to “bad” and 7 to “very good”. Her average score at the start of the exam was 4.3. At 10-year follow-up, it was 4.2.
At 20 years of follow-up, 1,771 women were diagnosed with dementia.
After adjusting for factors such as age and education, the researchers found that each 1-point increase in overall score reduced participants’ risk of dementia by 6%.
One of the limitations of this study was the lack of information that would allow researchers to ascertain how healthy habit changes, such as quitting smoking, affect dementia risk.
The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Researchers of the American Heart Association
Those seven factors are:
Joel Salinas, Ph.D., behavioral neurologist and researcher at NYU Langone Health and chief medical officer at Isaac Health in New York, said:
“You don’t have to be the healthiest person. Even those who score well in one or two areas are benefiting in some way. Any improvement will gradually improve your long-term health.” he told Healthline.
“Changing your habits will give you health benefits. The sooner you make these changes,” added Salinas. “The longer you stick with new habits, the better. The intention is to find an easy way to track your health.”
“Dementia is a global decline in cognitive skills, usually associated with other cognitive skills, such as short-term memory (learning/retrieving new information), executive skills (organization, decision-making), language, or vision. (or more), said Dr. Karen Miller, neuropsychologist and geriatrician, senior director of the Brain Wellness and Lifestyle Program at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in California. increase.
“In dementia, these declines typically affect the ability to be fully independent (i.e., the person has difficulty managing finances and medications, difficulty/impairment in driving, etc.),” she said. told Healthline.
According to one study, about two-thirds of people with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, are women.
One reason is that women live longer than men and dementia generally develops after age 80. According to Cognitive Vitality, a program of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, other possible causes include:
- Higher education is associated with a lower incidence of dementia. Many older women today did not have the same educational opportunities as men.
- Dementia is associated with depression, with more women than men suffering from depression
- People who exercise are less likely to develop dementia, and women exercise less than men
When women have dementia, they decline faster than men. Therefore, they can get more serious diseases.
Dementia occurs when neurons in the brain stop functioning or stop interacting with other brain cells.
Everyone loses some neurons as they age, but people with dementia suffer more significant losses.
Many people over the age of 85 have dementia, but it is not considered a normal part of aging.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, but it’s not the only one.
Other dementias include:
Some people have a combination of two or more types of dementia.
Signs and symptoms of dementia include:
- Experience memory loss, poor judgment, and confusion.
- Difficulty speaking, understanding, expressing thoughts, or reading and writing.
- Wandering or getting lost in familiar neighborhoods.
- I have trouble handling money responsibly and paying bills.
- repetitive question.
- Use unusual words to refer to everyday items.
- It takes time to complete daily routine tasks.
- Loss of interest in usual daily activities and events.
- Experience hallucinations or delusions or paranoia.
- act impulsively.
- Loss of balance and problems with movement
Experts say it’s important to pay attention to when symptoms are worsening.
“When people start noticing these symptoms in themselves or loved ones, it may be time to see a doctor. The same goes for new changes, new symptoms, or worsening of previous symptoms. There are treatments for this – they can’t heal or reverse the damage. The law is also one reason to see a doctor.”
