The exercise is anti-inflammatory and reduces levels of stress hormones.
Approaching 1 million people were included in the research.
Approaching 1 million people were included in the research.
Marriage can reduce the risk of developing dementia by 42 percent, research finds.
The conclusions come from 15 studies published over many years involving over 800,000 people in three continents.
The results showed that compared with married people, lifelong singletons were 42 percent more likely to develop dementia.
People who were widowed had a 20 percent increased chance of developing dementia.
Divorce, though, was not linked to an increased risk of dementia.
More recent studies included in the review suggest the benefit from being married is reducing, although it is not clear why.
The protective effect of marriage could be down to couples helping each other live healthier lives.
They may exercise more, eat a healthier diet and get more social stimulation.
The study’s authors conclude:
“Being married is associated with reduced risk of dementia than widowed and lifelong single people, who are also underdiagnosed in routine clinical practice.
Dementia prevention in unmarried people should focus on education and physical health and should consider the possible effect of social engagement as a modifiable risk factor.”
The study was published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (Sommerlad et al., 2018).
A study of hundreds of nuns and monks reveals which trait cuts Alzheimer’s risk in half.
A study of hundreds of nuns and monks reveals which trait cuts Alzheimer’s risk in half.
Being conscientious cuts the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in half, research finds.
People who are conscientious tend to be more organised, responsible and in control of their impulses.
The study’s authors explain:
“Conscientiousness (eg, “I am a productive person who always gets the job done”) refers to a tendency to be self-disciplined, scrupulous, and purposeful.”
They are also more likely to follow through on their duties and obligations.
The study of hundreds of nuns and monks found that those who were more productive and reliable were less likely to be affected by Alzheimer’s.
People high on conscientiousness were also more likely to experience a slower cognitive decline with age and lower risk of mild cognitive impairment (a risk factor for Alzheimer’s).
The results come from a study of 997 elderly nuns, priests and monks, none of whom had dementia at the start of the study.
Many were followed up for more than a decade.
The brains of those that died were examined for markers of Alzheimer’s.
The study revealed that those with the highest levels of conscientiousness were at an 89% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared to those with the lowest levels.
Surprisingly, the results could not be explained by conscientious people living more healthily.
Instead, the authors write that it could be partly down to education:
“…conscientiousness is a consistent predictor of academic and occupational performance.
Both level of educational and occupational attainment and the nature of occupational experiences have been associated with risk of AD.
Highly conscientious people may have a more intensive exposure to these educational and occupational experiences than less conscientious individuals and thereby derive additional benefit.”
Being conscientious may also buffer against life stress, they write:
“Conscientiousness is associated with a higher level of resilience and greater reliance on task-oriented coping.
These factors might lessen the adverse consequences of negative life events and chronic psychological distress, which have been associated with risk of dementia in old age.”
The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (Wilson et al., 2007).
The study is the latest in a line of research suggesting that gamma waves in different modalities could help fight Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.
The results showed that people whose personality changed in this way were more likely to develop dementia.
The results showed that people whose personality changed in this way were more likely to develop dementia.
Apathy is an early warning sign of dementia in people with cerebrovascular disease, research finds.
Apathy may result from damage to the brain’s white matter, which is primarily used for communication between regions of the brain.
Cerebrovascular disease occurs in around one-in-three older people and is the most common cause of vascular dementia.
Vascular dementia is the next most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease, accounting for up to 10 percent of cases.
Older people who show a new lack of interest, enthusiasm or concern are at greater risk of developing dementia, the study found.
Previously it was thought that depression was a warning sign of dementia, but this study does not support that conclusion.
Mr Jonathan Tay, the study’s first author, said:
“There has been a lot of conflicting research on the association between late-life depression and dementia.
Our study suggests that may partially be due to common clinical depression scales not distinguishing between depression and apathy.”
The study included over 450 people from the UK and the Netherlands who were tracked for several years.
The results showed that people whose apathy increased over time were more likely to develop dementia.
Mr Tay said:
“Continued monitoring of apathy may be used to assess changes in dementia risk and inform diagnosis.
Individuals identified as having high apathy, or increasing apathy over time, could be sent for more detailed clinical examinations, or be recommended for treatment.”
The researchers think that similar mechanisms underlie cognition and motivation.
Mr Tay said:
“This implies that apathy is not a risk factor for dementia per se, but rather an early symptom of white matter network damage.
Understanding these relationships better could have major implications for the diagnosis and treatment of patients in the future.”
The study was published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry (Tay et al., 2020).
This can benefit adults of any age.
This can benefit adults of any age.
Regular exercise, such as walking or cycling, can make your brain 20 years younger, research finds.
The older someone is, the more they have to gain from a little exercise.
However, even 20-year-olds can improve their brain power by doing some exercise.
Both young and old were able to improve their ‘executive function’ over six months.
Executive function is the ability to pay attention, achieve goals and control behaviour.
Exercise also makes the brain thicker and healthier, the study showed.
Dr Yaakov Stern, study co-author, said:
“As people age, there can be a decline in thinking skills, however our study shows that getting regular exercise may help slow or even prevent such decline.
We found that all participants who exercised not only showed improvements in executive function but also increased the thickness in an area of the outer layer of their brain.”
The six-month study included 132 people aged 20 to 67 with below average fitness levels who were otherwise healthy.
They were split into two groups: one did stretching and toning while the other did aerobic exercise four times a week.
People chose aerobic activities that suited them, from cycling, walking on a treadmill, to using an elliptical machine.
The results showed that aerobic exercise improved thinking skills in comparison to merely stretching and toning.
Both twenty-year-olds and older people benefitted — but it was older people who had the most to gain.
Dr Stern said:
“…the people who exercised were testing as if they were about 10 years younger at age 40 and about 20 years younger at age 60.
Since thinking skills at the start of the study were poorer for participants who were older, our findings suggest that aerobic exercise is more likely to improve age-related declines in thinking skills rather than improve performance in those without a decline.”
Those who exercised also developed greater cortical thickness in the left frontal area.
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Stern et al., 2019).
The supplement halves the rate of brain shrinkage.
The supplement halves the rate of brain shrinkage.
B vitamins halve the rate of brain shrinkage in people with mild memory problems, research finds.
High doses of B vitamins — folic acid, vitamin B6 and B12 — taken over two years were also linked to better scores on tests of memory and thinking.
Around 1 in 6 people over 70 have mild cognitive impairment.
About half of these people will go on to develop Alzheimer’s within five years.
Professor David Smith, study co-author, said:
“It is our hope that this simple and safe treatment will delay the development of Alzheimer’s disease in many people who suffer from mild memory problems.
Today there are about 1.5 million elderly in UK, 5 million in USA and 14 million in Europe with such memory problems.”
The study gave 168 volunteers over 70-years-old either a placebo or high doses of B vitamin tablets for two years.
Brain scans showed that brain shrinkage was reduced by 50 percent in people who took the B vitamins.
Lower rates of brain shrinkage were also linked to better scores on cognitive tests.
Professor Smith continued:
“These are immensely promising results but we do need to do more trials to conclude whether these particular B vitamins can slow or prevent development of Alzheimer’s.
So I wouldn’t yet recommend that anyone getting a bit older and beginning to be worried about memory lapses should rush out and buy vitamin B supplements without seeing a doctor.”
Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said:
“These are very important results, with B vitamins now showing a prospect of protecting some people from Alzheimer’s in old age.
The strong findings must inspire an expanded trial to follow people expected to develop Alzheimer’s, and we hope for further success.
We desperately need to support research into dementia, to help avoid the massive increases of people living with the condition as the population ages.
Research is the only answer to what remains the greatest medical challenge of our time.”
Subsequent to this study, carried out in 2010, other studies have questioned whether B vitamins can benefit Alzheimer’s — but research in this area continues.
The study was published in the journal PLoS ONE (Smith et al., 2010).
The fruits and vegetables that provide the highest protection against cognitive decline.
The fruits and vegetables that provide the highest protection against cognitive decline.
Certain fruits and vegetables that contain antioxidant flavonols appear to protect against cognitive decline.
Flavanols, which are a type of flavonoid, are found in nearly all fruits and vegetables, as well as in tea.
Consuming around one cup of dark leafy greens each day is linked to retaining stronger cognitive abilities with age.
A flavanol called kaempferol was linked to the highest level of protection by the research.
Typical foods that contain high levels of kaempferol include beans, tea, kale, spinach and broccoli.
Another flavanol called myricetin was also protective, although not quite to the same extent as kaempferol.
Typical foods that contain high levels of myricetin include wine, tea, kale, oranges and tomatoes.
Quercetin, which is found in tea, apples, kale and tomatoes was also protective, but at a still lower level.
Dr Thomas M. Holland, the study’s first author, said:
“It’s exciting that our study shows making specific diet choices may lead to a slower rate of cognitive decline.
Something as simple as eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more tea is an easy way for people to take an active role in maintaining their brain health.”
For the study, almost 1,000 people were divided into groups based on the amount of flavanols in their diet.
The group consuming the most flavanols got 15 mg a day — the amount that would come from a single cup of dark leafy greens.
Study participants were tracked over an average of 7 years and given regular cognitive tests.
These revealed that people who consumed the highest levels of flavanols experienced the slowest decline in their cognitive abilities.
The study’s authors explained:
“Results suggest dietary intakes of total flavonols and several flavonol constituents may be associated with slower decline in global cognition and multiple cognitive abilities with older age.”
As with any correlational research like this one, the study cannot prove that there is a link, merely that there is an association.
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Holland et al., 2022).
The study looked directly at levels of this vitamin in the brain, about which little is known.
The study looked directly at levels of this vitamin in the brain, about which little is known.
Higher levels of vitamin D in the brain are linked to better cognitive function and less decline with age, a study finds.
Indeed, adequate vitamin D levels have repeatedly been linked to lower dementia risk (1, 2, 3) by research.
One study has even suggested that adequate levels of vitamin D could prevent almost one-in-five cases of dementia (Navale et al., 2022).
However, the link remains somewhat controversial, with other studies finding no connection (also: Owusu et al., 2018).
This research, though, looked directly at vitamin D levels in the brain, about which little is known.
Professor Sarah Booth, study co-author, said:
“This research reinforces the importance of studying how food and nutrients create resilience to protect the aging brain against diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.”
The study, which tracked the cognitive health of 290 seniors, analysed their brain tissue for vitamin D after they died.
Dr Kyla Shea, the study’s first author, said:
“Many studies have implicated dietary or nutritional factors in cognitive performance or function in older adults, including many studies of vitamin D, but all of them are based on either dietary intakes or blood measures of vitamin D.
We wanted to know if vitamin D is even present in the brain, and if it is, how those concentrations are linked to cognitive decline.”
The researchers found that people with higher levels of vitamin D in their brains had better cognitive function.
However, they found no link between vitamin D markers and other physiological signs of Alzheimer’s.
This means it is difficult to pinpoint the mechanism by which vitamin D might be beneficial.
Dr Shea said:
“Dementia is multifactorial, and lots of the pathological mechanisms underlying it have not been well characterized.
Vitamin D could be related to outcomes that we didn’t look at yet, but plan to study in the future.”
Despite these findings, it is not recommended to take high levels of vitamin D as a preventative measure.
Recommended doses are 600 IU per day for people under 70 and 800 IU for those over 70.
Dr Shea said:
“We now know that vitamin D is present in reasonable amounts in human brains, and it seems to be correlated with less decline in cognitive function.
But we need to do more research to identify the neuropathology that vitamin D is linked to in the brain before we start designing future interventions.”
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia (Shea et al., 2022).
This ingredient is linked to double the rate of memory decline and problems with thinking.
This ingredient is linked to double the rate of memory decline and problems with thinking.
Eating a diet spiced with chillies is linked to an increased risk of dementia, research finds.
People who eat more than 50 g of chillies per day suffer double the rate of memory decline and problems with thinking.
The decline is even greater for chilli eaters who are slim.
The findings come on the back of some positive coverage for spicy foods, including linking them to longer life, lower blood pressure and other benefits.
Dr Zumin Shi, the study’s first author, said:
“Chili consumption was found to be beneficial for body weight and blood pressure in our previous studies.
However, in this study, we found adverse effects on cognition among older adults,”
The study included over 4,000 Chinese adults who were tracked over 15 years.
The spicy foods tracked included both fresh and dried chilli peppers, but not black pepper or capsicum (often known as sweet peppers or bell peppers).
Dr Shi said:
“Chili is one of the most commonly used spices in the world and particularly popular in Asia compared to European countries.
In certain regions of China, such as Sichuan and Hunan, almost one in three adults consume spicy food every day.”
The active ingredient in chillies is capsaicin, which is what produces the burning sensation when consumed, or when coming into contact with any tissue.
Capsaicin has been linked to weight loss as it is thought to speed up the metabolism and increase fat loss.
The study was published in the journal Nutrients (Shi et al., 2019).
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