Medical researchers have been seeking a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease for decades without success. Since there’s no cure in sight, you should take the most important precautions right now that lower your risk for brain problems as you age.
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, have found that four central risk factors that are involved in heart disease are just as important for influencing the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
When your cardiovascular function starts to slip, that immediately begins to impact your brain. The neurons in the brain depend on a smoothly flowing supply of blood to provide supportive nutrients and cleanse the cells of waste products.
“We already know that vascular risk factors damage the brain and can result in cognitive impairment,” says researcher Kevin S. King. “But our findings give us a more concrete idea about the relationship between specific vascular risk factors and brain health.”
King notes that other studies have connected cardiovascular complications to memory damage. His study specifically examined how risk factors for heart disease influenced the health of three regions in the brain that are central to preserving your memory: the precuneus, the posterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus.
From what they found among a group of people aged 50 and older, the Keck researchers recommend that you can protect both your heart and your brain by:
- Giving up smoking. Smoking is a powerful source of damaging inflammation in both the cardiovascular system and the brain.
- Cutting way back on your alcohol consumption. A wide range of research links the over-consumption of alcoholic beverages to brain difficulties. No one concerned with brain health should imbibe more than one or two drinks daily.
- Losing weight. Carrying around extra body fat has been shown to endanger both your heart and brain. Researchers believe that the heavier you are, the more you risk impairing your brain function.
- Leading a diabetes-prevention lifestyle. Keeping your blood sugar under control helps to protect both your brain and heart. There’s growing evidence that diabetes seriously increases your risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Unfortunately, life in our sedentary society with its around-the-clock exposure to the media’s “let me entertain you” attitude seems custom-made to lull brains and hearts into a state of disrepair. But if you can break out of the passive role marketers, ad men, game show hosts, medical experts, politicians and other hucksters are trying to seduce you into accepting, there’s hope for a healthier, happier and more memorable future.
