What can we do to prevent #dementia?
Science shows us that modifying 12 major risk factors might prevent or delay up to 40% of dementias.
These factors are: less education (7%), hypertension (2%), hearing impairment (8%), smoking (5%), depression (4%), physical inactivity (2%), low social interaction (4%), direct brain injury (3%), among others (check the figure below).
It is never too early or too late for dementia prevention.
-Early-life (younger than 45 years) risks, such as less education, affect cognitive reserve; you increase blood circulation in the brain by learning and thinking, improving brain resistance to damage.
-Midlife (45–65 years) and later life (older than 65 years) risk factors influence cognitive reserve and trigger neuropathological developments—inducing neuroinflammation and neuronal death.
Culture, poverty, and inequality are key drivers of the need for change. Individuals who are most deprived need these changes the most and will derive the highest benefit.
Policy should prioritise childhood education for all.
Public health initiatives minimizing head injury and
decreasing harmful alcohol drinking could potentially
reduce young-onset and later-life dementia.
Be ambitious about prevention
- Attain a high level of education to increase and maintain cognitive reserve.
-Hearing aids reduce substantially the excess risk of dementia from hearing loss.
- Sustained exercise in any moment of life protects from dementia (perhaps through decreasing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risk).
- Prevent head injury.
- Limit alcohol use: more than 21 units weekly increase the risk of dementia.
Reference: thelancet.com

And I think the fact that "Risk unknown" is still up to 60% of all cases shows how much we still need to advance in dementia research, both basic and clinical.