Prevention and Lifestyle Factors Reduce Dementia Risk

In the last 20 years, several epidemiological studies have examined the effects and incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Western countries, reporting alarming data on the increasing number of persons expected to develop dementia in the near future. A recent report published by leading researchers of various European institutions has analyzed five large epidemiological studies conducted in Western Europe (two in Sweden, one in the United Kingdom, one in the Netherlands, and one in Spain). The report shows that these statistics are actually less dramatic than expected. In particular, four of the five studies show that due to changes in life expectancy, living conditions, and improvements in lifestyle and health care, the rate of dementia has actually not increased over the past 20 to 30 years. These changes have overall reduced the incidence of cardiovascular risk factors, which are strongly related with the occurrence of dementia. These data indicate that attention to optimum lifestyle is essential to guarantee cognitive health late in life and suggest that current research should focus more on primary prevention.