8 Habits That May Increase Your Dementia Risk

As folks grow older, many health fears come to mind. But one in particular tends to really worry folks.

“One of the most consuming fears of older adults [is] that they might lose their memory and become a burden to others,” said Dr. James Ellison, a psychiatrist at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.

The specific type of memory loss that’s a top fear for many older adults is known as dementia, which is an umbrella term that refers to conditions that cause “mental loss, cognitive loss that’s severe enough to affect daily function,” said Dr. Victor Henderson, the director of the NIH Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in California.

Dementia may make someone forget their address, not remember why they’re running a certain errand or no longer be able to pay bills they always pay. It’s a scary disease that some folks are genetically predisposed to, but there are thought to be lifestyle habits, too, that can put you at heightened risk.

“Let me begin with a caveat; there are a lot of lifestyle factors that have been associated with the risk of developing dementia. The caveat is that most of these haven’t been studied, at least adequately studied, in randomized clinical trials,” said Henderson.

Meaning, following the guidance below isn’t going to totally prevent a dementia diagnosis, but these are habits that also benefit your health as a whole. So, there’s no reason not to follow them, whether they are good for lowering your dementia risk, chance of a heart attack or bettering your mood. Here’s what to know:

“Many of the things that we talk about for dementia prevention or brain health optimization are the types of things that people will be familiar with hearing from cardiovascular and other health initiatives,” said Dr. Christina Prather, director of the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

“We always have said, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain,” Dr. Rudy Tanzi, the director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, previously told HuffPost.

Just as the Mediterranean diet ― which is high in healthy fats, lean meats, whole grains, fruits and veggies — is good for your heart health, it’s also good for your brain health, and is a diet that Prather recommends.

She also suggest following the MIND diet, which encourages whole grains, beans, berries, leafy greens, fish, olive oil and other foods that are said to have brain health benefits. A plant-based diet is also a good one to follow for brain health, Prather noted.

You shouldn’t shy away from managing your medical conditions, Prather said. Certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are dementia risk factors, she said.

“Really aggressively managing those risk factors is well established to be a way of reducing the risk of cognitive health dementia in the future,” Prather said.

“This is particularly important for vascular risk factors like atrial fibrillation or high blood pressure or hyperlipidemia,” Ellison added. Doing so protects circulation, blood supply and oxygen supply to the brain, Ellison noted.

This is important for the prevention of vascular dementia in particular, which happens when blood flow is blocked to the brain. Vascular dementia is a common kind of dementia.

“People need to sleep adequately because the brain renews itself during deep sleep and lowers its concentration of beta amyloid, which is the toxic protein that contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Ellison.

Prather added that you should also be sure to treat any sleep disorders that are interfering with your rest.

“There is an epidemic of undiagnosed sleep apnea in older adults,” Prather said.

And sleep apnea results in poor-quality sleep.

Sleep can also be impacted by the use of medications that induce sleep, she noted.

“Those are all signs your body is not getting the restorative sleep that it needs to consolidate memories and to have the most optimal cognitive function going forward,” said Prather.

It’s also important to prioritize social connections, said Prather. “We know that loneliness and depression and isolation are exceptionally negative for health,” she noted.

“They have impacts on cognition as well as mortality,” said Prather.

“Loneliness is an epidemic among older adults, and has a mortality associated with it [that’s] similar to moderate smoking,” said Ellison.

Keeping your mind socially engaged is also an important way to stay cognitively engaged, Prather said, whether that’s by taking part in conversations or listening to stories from loved ones.

Lots of recent research has found that alcohol is not good for your health. It can lead to liver damage, increase your risk of certain cancers, and it’s also not good for your brain health.

“I tell people, if you’re having issues with your cognition or you’re worried about your memory, one of the first pieces of advice I’m going to give you is to reduce your alcohol use,” said Prather. Just like our body as a whole, the liver is aging and can’t handle alcohol the same way it could when you were 21.

“The other piece about alcohol is not only that, it’s a direct toxin (we increasingly know it increases risk for almost all cancers), but it can really disrupt sleep,” Prather said.

Next time you have a drink before bed, notice how it impacts your sleep, she suggested. And, as mentioned above, it’s important to get restorative sleep to reduce your dementia risk.

After 65, it’s recommended that folks have no more than one standard drink a day and no more than seven in a week, Prather noted.

The CDC recommends no more than two drinks each day for men and no more than one for women.

According to Ellison, it’s important to both live a generally active lifestyle and get in aerobic and other forms of exercise.

This could mean walking to do your errands instead of driving while also making plans to go to a workout class or go for a bike ride.

“It’s recommended that older adults exercise 30 minutes aerobically, five days a week, but only about 10% of those over 75 meet that level of activity,” said Ellison.

Exercise is good for your cardiovascular health, which, as mentioned above, is also good for your brain health.

Prather added that fitness is something you should be prioritizing no matter your age and, “well before any cognitive changes happen.”

“One of the things I tell my patients is, if you’re bicycling, wear a helmet,” said Henderson.

“There have been a huge number of observational studies linking head injury to dementia,” Henderson added. There is a consistent association that head injuries likely do play a role in dementia risk, he said.

How large of a role does it play in someone’s dementia risk? “The answer might be that it doesn’t play a huge role at a population level, but on an individual level, it’s probably really important,” said Henderson.

“As a psychiatrist, of course I want to shine a little light on depression,” Ellison said.

While severe depression isn’t as common in older adults when compared to younger adults, both severe depression and low-grade depressive symptoms can disrupt the things that are important for cognitive health such as socialization, exercise, self-care and diet, Ellison noted.

“So, treatment of depression may be one way of improving cognitive aging,” he said.

“The number of people with dementia is increasing. I think everyone is aware of that. But it’s increasing in part because the number of people living to a very old age is increasing,” said Henderson.

Most dementia happens in older folks, Henderson added.

But, on the bright side, “if you look at the actual chance of getting dementia at a particular age, it’s actually come down slightly, not a whole lot, but slightly, and it seems to parallel advances in taking care of cardiovascular health,” Henderson said.

There are also now FDA-approved medications for the most common form of dementia, which is Alzheimer’s, said Ellison, who stressed that it’s important to start these medications early on in the disease course.

This makes it important to talk to your doctor if you do notice that you have cognitive challenges such as frequently misplacing items, memory changes that disturb your life or have trouble solving problems.

“It’s so hard not to be afraid of something when most people have someone in their life that has been touched by this disease, and it feels as though your future risk of it … is out of your control. But the things that we’ve talked about, all lifestyle changes that can be done better that are in our control,” said Prather.

Still, there will be people who get types of dementia because of genetics or other unmodifiable risk factors, “and we cannot set up the expectation that they failed to prevent [dementia] through their own actions or choices. That is just not fair,” Prather noted.

“But, for many of us, we can make changes to our lifestyle and know confidently that we’ve done everything that we can to prevent this,” she said.