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Avoiding These 3 Health Risks in Midlife Linked to 13 More Years Without Dementia
SciTechDaily • • health
Key Points:
- A study published in Neurology Open Access found that adults with normal blood pressure, no diabetes, and no history of smoking in midlife lived nearly 13 years longer without dementia compared to those with all three risk factors.
- Researchers followed 12,409 dementia-free participants, averaging age 56, for 26 years, assessing high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking status, and found those without these risk factors had an average of 30.1 dementia-free years versus 17.5 years for those with all three.
- Women lived longer without dementia than men at all risk levels, and White participants had more dementia-free years than Black participants, highlighting differences in dementia-free survival by sex and race.
- The study emphasizes midlife prevention of vascular risk factors as a practical strategy to delay dementia onset and maintain brain health, encouraging smoking cessation and management of blood pressure and blood sugar.
- A limitation of the study is that risk factors were measured only once, so changes in health status over time were not tracked, and the findings show association rather than direct causation.
