Which Healthy Lifestyle Habits Reduce the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease?

Alzheimer's disease still has no effective treatment, but adopting "Healthy Living" habits is thought to reduce this risk by 60%.

Dementia has Alzheimer's disease as its most common form, a condition frequently seen in people aged 65 and older. Alzheimer's is a slowly progressing but irreversible brain disease that impairs the ability to carry out everyday activities.

According to 2017 data from IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation), dementia is the 5th leading cause of death worldwide, causing 2.51 million deaths annually.

The Relationship Between "Healthy Living" Habits and Alzheimer's Disease

In the most comprehensive neurology journal, Neurology, a study published on 17 June 2020 evaluated data from 2 different long-term studies: the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP) and the Memory and Aging Project (MAP).

• CHAP is a large community study investigating the risks of chronic diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease, in older people, while
• MAP is a study investigating vascular health and brain aging.

The analysis of these two studies used data from 1825 CHAP participants and 920 MAP participants. The mean age was 73.2 in CHAP and 81.1 in MAP. To examine the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and healthy lifestyle habits, healthy lifestyle data were scored. Participants' healthy lifestyle data were assessed on a scale from 0-5 according to the following factors.

1. Physical activity (150 minutes per week, at light-to-moderate intensity)
2. Adherence to the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet. The MIND diet model combines the Mediterranean and DASH diets to reduce the risk of neurological disease.
3. A smoke-free life
4. Moderate alcohol consumption (for women: 1-15 g per day; for men: 1-30 g. 1 glass of red wine (100-150 ml) contains an average of 10-15 g of alcohol.
5. Activities that exercise the brain

Participants in CHAP and MAP were followed for an average of 6 years. At the end of 6 years, 379 CHAP participants and 229 MAP participants had developed Alzheimer's disease.

When the relationship between Alzheimer's disease and healthy lifestyle scores was examined;

• the group with healthy lifestyle scores of 2-3 had a 37% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than the group with scores of 0-1,
• while the group with healthy lifestyle scores of 4-5 had a 60% lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than the group with scores of 0-1.

The results of this study show that healthy living plays an effective role in preventing and delaying Alzheimer's disease. There are modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease: certain genetic factors and advanced age cannot be changed, whereas an unhealthy lifestyle is a modifiable risk factor. The fact that lifestyle is a modifiable risk factor is an important advantage. Therefore, encouraging "Healthy Living" habits is important for reducing the future risk of Alzheimer's disease and other conditions.

Comment and Summary

We can say that the best strategy for protection against Alzheimer's disease is to adopt healthy lifestyle habits as early in life as possible. These habits will help reduce not only the risk of Alzheimer's disease but also the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.