Dementia is not just a disease that begins when we get old. Much of the risk we can influence builds up far earlier, already in midlife.
A long-term study of more than 12,000 people followed participants from around age 55 for more than two decades. The researchers focused on three well-known and modifiable risk factors:
High blood pressure. Diabetes. Smoking.
The difference between the groups was striking.
People who had none of the three risk factors at the start of the study could expect around 30 years without dementia between the ages of 55 and 95.
For people with all three risk factors, the corresponding figure was around 17 years. A difference of 13 years.
Just as important: the differences build up gradually over decades. What we do in our 40s, 50s and 60s can matter enormously much later in life.
That is also what makes the results so hopeful.
Blood pressure can be measured and treated. Blood sugar and metabolic health can be tracked and improved. Smoking is a risk factor that can be eliminated. And physical activity is yet another of our most important modifiable factors for long-term brain health.
We cannot control our genes, and we can never eliminate the risk of dementia entirely. But more and more research suggests we can change the odds.
Just as we have long worked preventively with cardiovascular disease, we need to start thinking more preventively about the brain. Not waiting for symptoms, but identifying and treating risk factors far earlier.
Brain health does not start at 80. It starts much earlier.
And perhaps the most positive message of all: it is never too early to work preventively. And never too late to start.
