Alzheimer's 4: Your risk of developing dementia and lists of lifestyle and personal risk factors
33% of married couples may have to face Alzheimer's together...
Summary
8% of married couples can expect to face Alzheimer’s together before the age of 75
33% of married couples can expect to face Alzheimer’s together after the age of 75
We provide a list of healthy lifestyle factors that reduce your risk of Alzheimers so you can research how to develop them in your lives
We provide a list of risk factors so that you can think about how you can remove them from your life
Working on your risk and health factors will enhance your clarity of thinking an improve all aspects of your life, not just reduce your dementia risk
When I have time I hope to link the health and risk factors to quality articles and videos.
Chart 1: For those of us on an American-style diet and lifestyle, 50-year-old women go on to have a 20% risk of developing dementia while for 50-year-old men the risk is 11% (chart source).
Dementia devastates caregivers too
From what follows you will see that dementia affects the principal caregivers just as much as it does the sufferers. This is why it’s really important for married folk to plan together to be happy and healthy.
Your risk of having or developing dementia before age 75
The population-wide risk of developing early dementia (before age 75) is currently 5% for women and 3% for men. The combined risk for a married couple is ( 5 + 3 = ) 8%.
Of course, one or both partners may develop pre-dementia and therefore be limited n their enjoyment of life before age 75, and reducing your Alzhimers’s risk will also reduce the risk of all age related illnesses, so don’t let an 8% chance lull you into a sense of false security!
Your risk of having or developing dementia after age 75
For those of us on an American-style diet and lifestyle, the risk of developing dementia is 22% for women and 11% for men.
For a married couple the same age and assuming you both live long lives, the shared risk of being a dementia patient or having to care for one is ( 22 + 14 = ) 33%.
33% is a high combined risk. That’s why I encourage you to do something about it while you still have your brain and can make sensible lifestyle choices to reduce the risk.
Comprehensive list of lifestyle habits for avoiding dementia
It’s daunting to look at all the preventative lifestyle habits at once. But it won’t matter because you can work on one at a time.
As you look through the list, you’ll likely notice that you learned much of your lifestyle from your parents, while other habits were developed and nurtured slowly (and haphazardly) over a period of years or more. And yet others (often bad habits), came into your life quickly and easily as a result of clever convenience technology and marketing!
Thus, you can see that to future-proof your old age, you’d better start early and be persistent. Your twenties is not too soon. Because once your mental acuity is fading, it’s difficult (but not impossible) to make more changes.
List from the article: What can increase a person's risk of dementia?
Dementia risk is lowest in people with healthy mid-life behaviours (aged 40–65). These behaviours include:
Regular mental activity
Regular physical activity
Regular social activity
Non-smoking
Alcohol only in moderation
Healthy diet (many aspects)
Interested in personal health, read widely, open-minded, willing to consult a variety of health practitioners (including but not limited to doctors)
Various health and medical approaches to health include:-
Vitamin, nutritional and herbal supplements
Corrections you can put in place as the result of tests available from your doctor or pharmacy
Corrections you can put in place as the result of modern genetic, gut bacteria and metabolic profile testing (these tests are available from highly trained holistic health professionals and integrative medical doctors, an are mostly available to New Zealanders)
Comprehensive list of risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s
Primer article: https://primehealthdenver.com/alzheimers-risk-factors/
Advanced age
Female
Genetic predisposition and family history (e.g. have a copy of the APOE 4 gene - about 20% of people have one copy of this gene, and about 4% have two copies - we’ll discuss this more in a later article).
Diabetes and metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, obesity, fatty liver)
Chronic diseases associated with vascular injury
Inflammatory diet
Heavy metal toxicity such as environmental lead and mercury amalgam
Chronic stress
Sleep disturbance
Lack of cognitive reserve
Head injury (concussion and whiplash)
Sedentary lifestyle
Hormone imbalances
Bad gut bacteria
(see: Mark Hyman’s video interview re: Clostridium difficile)
Wheat intolerance/gluten intolerance/roundup sensitivity
Electromagnetic radiation from modern digital devices
Gum disease
Cellular function problems
Poverty
Long covid and covid infection in general
Air pollution
Smoking
Household mould