Not all dementias can be mitigated, but there are some factors that have been scientifically identified as controllable. This is from an online article sent to doctors:
"These numbers are staggering, according to the authors of a 2020 update of the 2017 Lancet Commission on dementia prevention. (40% of us will develop some dementia.)The good news is that dementia is not necessarily a foregone conclusion as we age. In fact, neurocognitive health is highly dependent on many lifestyle decisions that we can control.
The Lancet study authors point to 12 modifiable risk factors fleshed out by the research—an increase from the nine cited in 2017. Let’s take a closer look.
What can be done?
According to the Commission, the 12 modifiable risk factors account for about 40% of worldwide dementia that can be prevented or delayed.
The authors categorize prevention strategies as: 1) reduced pathological damage (eg, amyloid-/tau-mediated, vascular, or inflammatory mechanisms), and 2) increased/maintained cognitive reserve.
The authors cite the following interventions:
Reduce diabetes
Reduce hypertension (ie, systolic pressure of 130 mm Hg at 40 years or older via antihypertensive medications)
Avoid head injury
Stop (or don’t start) smoking
Decrease exposure to air pollution (including second-hand smoke)
Decrease midlife obesity
Additionally, the authors recommend the following for maintaining/boosting cognitive reserve:
Treatment of hearing impairment (ie, use of hearing aids and avoidance of excessive noise levels)
Develop and maintain social contact
Attain higher levels of education
As for factors that relate to pathological damage and cognitive reserve, the authors recommended the following:
Engage in frequent exercise
Address depression
Avoid excessive levels of alcohol"
Share this with loved ones who are showing early signs, with family members and caregivers (so they understand the changes that must be made), and with medical personel who do not seem to understand that interventions really can help.
Sometimes the most we can hope for is to slow those changes and have a few more good hours each day. First my father and now my mother had (have) progressive dementia, so I am talking also as a daughter/caregiver. For my parents, making some changes slowed their progression and kept them more stable emotionally. That was the best I could do.
There is no way to ward off dementia by doing certain things or eating a Mediterranean diet and all that hogwash. Nor is it true that all old people will get dementia.
The medical experts aren't experts at all on the mechanisms of the brain and in reality, they don't know their butts from a hole in the ground on the topic of dementia and Alzheimer's. Its misleading to even suggest that interventions can help. Its common sense to avoid smoking and excess drinking, to avoid ALL disease, but perhaps we should all move to a cave in the Sahara so we can avoid air pollution. 😥
I agree with the smoking and drinking. But my daughter, who has worked in NHs feels that its the intelligent ones who seem to contract a Dementia. And you hear that on this formum, "Dad/Mom are highly intelligent". I will admit that people who tend to be loners may be prone to Dementia but I have seen people who have been involved have Dementia too.
And then there are always going to be the outliers that turn the statistics on their head - the healthy, athletic vegans with dementia and the smoking, drinking couch potatoes that live well into their 90's.
It will be an interesting study for someone in the field of geriatrics to identify and assess the horrible effects of Covid - infection, isolation, the whole mess, at timed intervals from now into the next 20 or 30 years.