Dementia is a blanket word that refers to a variety of degenerative neurological conditions (those that affect the brain) that affect memory, thinking, and behavior.
Studies show that having diabetes makes you more likely to get dementia than having a genetic risk.
Experts from Oxford and Exeter Universities believe that having a heart attack or stroke poses a similar risk.
Adults with all three obesity-related disorders were three times more likely than ‘healthy’ people without any to develop dementia.
The findings, based on an analysis of more than 200,000 Britons, emphasize the significance of exercise and healthy diet, in particular.
Dementia affects about 6.5 million in the United States, according to dozens of studies.
The latest study, which was published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, is one of the largest to look into the connection.
Dementia is a serious global concern, with forecasts that 135 million people will have the dreadful ailment by 2050, according to lead author Dr. Xin You Tai.
“We found having such heart-related conditions is linked to dementia risk to a greater extent than genetic risk.”
“So whatever genetic risk you were born with, you can potentially make a big impact on reducing risk of dementia by looking after heart and metabolic health throughout life.”
Experts used the UK Biobank, a database that holds the health records of half a million Britons, including brain imaging and genetic data, to study people in their sixties.
They separated 200,000 people into low, medium, and high-risk groups based on their hereditary risk of dementia due to the presence of genes like APOE.
The researchers also kept track of which patients had cardiometabolic disorders, which are recognized dementia risk factors.
Nearly 20,000 of the participants had been diagnosed with one of the three cardiometabolic diseases: diabetes, stroke, or heart attack.
Around 2,000 persons were affected by two of the three, while 122 were affected by all three.
The researchers discovered that having more than one of these three conditions increased a person’s chance of dementia.
For those with more than one heart-related health issue, brain scans, which were available for 12,000 participants, revealed widespread brain damage.
Adults with a high genetic risk of dementia showed only localized brain degeneration.
To function effectively, brain cells require a steady supply of blood and oxygen. Heart attacks and strokes disrupt this blood supply, which can result in brain damage.
Diabetes, according to experts, can cause dementia because it causes high blood sugar, which is known to harm the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center.
“Many studies look at the risk of a single condition in relation to dementia, but health is more complex than that,” added senior research author Professor David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter.
“We know that many patients actually have a range of conditions.”
According to our findings, ” people who have a diagnosis of diabetes, stroke or a heart attack it is particularly important to look after their health and ensure they are on the right treatment, to prevent further problems as well as to reduce their dementia risk.”
This study shows that “protecting the heart throughout life likely also has significant benefits for the brain,” remarked Dr Kenneth Langa, study co-author and medicine expert at the University of Michigan.
“To look after your heart, you can engage in regular exercise, eat a healthy diet and do everything possible to ensure blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels fall within guidelines.”
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