By Gary Geyer
Imagine if while trying to keep your heart healthy you were also inadvertently lowering your risk of Alzheimer’s.
Although Alzheimer’s has been closely associated with aging, it may not tell the whole story.
The same risk factors
Research done at Chicago’s Rush Institute for Healthy Aging and reported in Nutrition Action, is finding that although the facts aren’t all in, it is looking like Alzheimer’s has the same risk factors as heart disease.
That means, if you are doing what you should be doing to keep your heart in good shape, your brain just might go along for the ride.
What’s good for the heart is good for the brain
Researchers are finding that all the things you have been watching (or should be watching) — diet, weight, exercise, blood pressure and cholesterol — for the sake of your heart are right in line with your brain’s concerns.
Unfortunately, some risk factors such as Alzheimer’s-prone genes can’t be changed or avoided. However, the good news is that dementia may not be inevitable.
Here are 10 things you could be doing to keep your brain in good shape.
Since brain research is relatively a new area, what follows is only advice. Even if it does nothing for your brain, it should lower your risks of many other concerns – like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and who knows what.
1. Limit the amount of saturated fats in your diet. Anyone out there that still doesn’t know that saturated fats are bad for your arteries? Well guess what? The Chicago Health & Aging Project has found that eating diets high in saturated fats doubles -yes DOUBLES -the risk of Alzheimer’s.
2. Seek out foods rich in Vitamin E. Although research has shown that vitamin supplements had no cognitive benefits, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health haven’t given up on vitamins from food. They found a lower risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s in people who got their vitamin E from foods such as vegetable oils, nuts, green leafy vegetables and whole grains.
3. Eat Green -leafy green. The bad news is that fruits seem to do nothing. The good news from the Harvard School of Public Health is that in tests measuring verbal memory to 13,000 nurses between 1995 and 2001 those who reported eating the most green leafy vegetables had a slower cognitive decline than those who ate the least.
4. Eat Omega-3 fatty fish 2-3 times a week. Much research has been done showing how DHA in Omega 3 protects the heart but now there is growing evidence that it may also ward off cognitive decline in the brain, reports the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.
5. Keep your blood sugar below 100. It’s as simple as this: Your blood sugar should be below 100. If it’s between 100-125 you are considered pre-diabetic. Over 125, you are diabetic. There are numerous studies that show that being either per-diabetic or diabetic has an adverse effect on memory. Dr Goldstein of The Harvard school of Public Health believes that having diabetes is like “being 10 to 15 years older.”
6. Lose that extra weight. Being overweight increases your risk of diabetes (see #5, above). Plus, studies have shown that obese people, diabetic or not, have an increased risk of dementia as they get older. Kristine Yaffe, a psychiatrist and neurologist at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine and the Veterans Administration Medical Center in San Francisco says that her study show that “fat cells may release hormones and cause inflammation that may be harmful to the brain and that people who were overweight in middle age were twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia 36 years later.”
7. Exercise, exercise, exercise! “Regular exercise helps retain memory and preserve the brain,” says Goldstein. And it doesn’t take a lot. Even walking half an hour twice a week lowers the risk. Exercise boosts the odds of having healthy arteries and lowers blood pressure and less insulin resistance.
8. Watch your blood pressure. High blood pressure increases the risk of mini-strokes which cause cognitive decline. Although researcher’s in Finland, in a 21 year study with 1450 middle-aged men and women found those with the highest blood pressure had twice the risk of Alzheimer’s or other dementia However, the link between high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s is not clear.
9. Engage in stimulating mind activities. In other words, give your brain a workout. All studies show that older people who report being intellectually active have a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Books, concerts, plays, museums, libraries, games like chess and checkers, crossword puzzles, writing letters, etc. all count. Don’t just zone out.
10.Watch out for depression. There is much evidence that suggests that depression is either a risk factor or a precursor for dementia. Treating depression in its early stages not only helps the depression but it is a strong possibility it could also prevent cognitive decline.
The problem is that depression isn’t easily recognized in older people. Many doctors (and even patients) just assume that it’s normal to feel miserable when you are old. <<
Gary Geyer is Editor-in-Chief of LetLifeIn.com (Editor@LetLifeIn.com) as well as editor of the Issues & Controversies section. Reach him at Gary@LetLifeIn.com.
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