Alzheimer’s is one of those diseases that people have been trying to get to the bottom of for decades.
But now, new research has found that there are some risk factors that we can safely say are big contributors to this disease.
Researchers from the University of San Francisco looked at over 300 studies done on Alzheimer’s cases, and they narrowed it down to the nine risk factors that they believe are responsible for over two-thirds of Alzheimer’s cases. ##MN_RESP##
Medical Daily posted the list, and here they are:
- Obesity
- Carotid artery narrowing
- Low education
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Frailty
- Smoking
- High levels of homocysteine
- Type 2 diabetes (interestingly, only in Asian populations.
Of course, some of these aren’t that big of a surprise. Obesity and high blood pressure, for example, seem to be responsible for everything these days. There certainly aren’t any upsides to smoking, either.
But others, like low education and depression, seem less expected.
Either way, knowing these risk factors will help develop a more sophisticated understanding of the disease that affects so amny of the elderly and their families. It will also focus further research to figure out why these risk factors are so strongly linked to Alzheimer’s.
The most important thing to come from this research, of course, is that researchers are that much closer to a cure.
For now, there’s always preventative measures for some of these. Eating right, exercising, and taking care of your body and brain are pretty good ways to make sure you’re doing as much as you can to prevent it.
These researchers found that diet that’s best for brain health is the Mediterranean diet, which is full of omega-3 fatty acids like salmon, as well as lots of veggies and whole grains. This kind of diet can also help lower blood pressure, another risk factor for Alzheimer’s.
