Category: Dementia

People with a high risk of dementia might be able to lower the odds with these three antioxidants.

Higher blood levels of specific antioxidants could reduce the chances of developing dementia.

According to research, individuals with the highest blood concentrations of beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, and zeaxanthin antioxidants are at lower risk of getting dementia in later life.

Pistachios, egg yolk, bell peppers, corn, kiwi fruit, grapes, courgette (zucchini), squash, and green leafy vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, peas, and kale contain high amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin (Sommerburg et al., 1998).

Beta-cryptoxanthin is the other natural carotenoid that can slow down dementia due to aging.

Persimmons, oranges, carrots, peaches, tangerines, papaya, and orange maize are good sources of beta-cryptoxanthin.

Dr May Beydoun, the study’s first author, said:

“Extending people’s cognitive functioning is an important public health challenge.

Antioxidants may help protect the brain from oxidative stress, which can cause cell damage.

Further studies are needed to test whether adding these antioxidants can help protect the brain from dementia.”

For this study more than 7,000 participants age 45 or older were enrolled and followed for 16 years.

At the start they went through an interview, physical examination, and blood test to check their antioxidant levels.

The results showed that the risk of developing dementia was reduced for participants with the highest levels of lutein and zeaxanthin.

Increased amounts of lutein and zeaxanthin (15.4 μmol/l) resulted in a 7 percent lower risk of dementia.

Increased levels of beta-cryptoxanthin by 8.6 μmol/l led to a 14 percent reduced risk of dementia.

Dr Beydoun added:

“It’s important to note that the effect of these antioxidants on the risk of dementia was reduced somewhat when we took into account other factors such as education, income and physical activity, so it’s possible that those factors may help explain the relationship between antioxidant levels and dementia.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Beydoun et al., 2022).

Dementia risk doubled in people with high on this major personality trait.

Being neurotic may double the risk of developing dementia later in life, research reveals.

The major personality trait of neuroticism involves a tendency towards worry and moodiness.

People who are neurotic are more likely to experience negative emotions like depression, anxiety, guilt and envy.

However, the link between neuroticism and dementia only occured in people experiencing long-standing stress.

In other words, neurotic people are particularly sensitive to chronic stress.

Neurotic people not exposed to excessive stress were at no greater risk of dementia.

Dr Lena Johannsson, the study’s first author, said:

“We could see that the women who developed Alzheimer disease had more often been identified in the personality test 40 years earlier as having neurotic tendencies.

We found a clear statistical correlation for the women who had at the same time been subject to a long period of stress.”

The study followed 800 women with an average of 46 for almost four decades.

They were asked if they had experienced prolonged periods of stress.

This meant a month or more of ongoing stress related to family, work or health that created feelings of nervousness, fear and irritability.

Thirty-eight years later, one-in-five had developed dementia.

The risk was substantially higher, though, in those who were neurotic.

An even more vulnerable group were those who were both neurotic and introverted — women with this combination were at the highest risk.

Dr Johannsson said:

“We know that many factors influence the risk of developing dementia.

Our personality may determine behavior, lifestyle and how we react to stress, and in this way affect the risk of developing Alzheimer disease.”

However, neuroticism can be changed by therapy and its effects can be reduced.

Dr Johannsson said:

“Some studies have shown that long periods of stress can increase the risk of Alzheimer disease, and our main hypothesis is that it is the stress itself that is harmful.

A person with neurotic tendencies is more sensitive to stress than other people.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Johansson et al., 2014).

This Alzheimer’s early warning sign could provide a way of warding off the neurodegenerative disease.

Poor sleep could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s in people who are otherwise healthy, research finds.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.

Scientists have found links between certain biological markers of Alzheimer’s and sleep disturbances.

Dr Barbara B. Bendlin, who led the study, said:

“Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer’s disease in various ways.

For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque build-up because the brain’s clearance system kicks into action during sleep.

Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well.”

The study was carried out on 101 people with an average age of 63.

All were at risk of Alzheimer’s, although none had any symptoms.

The results showed that those with the worst sleep quality also had biological markers of Alzheimer’s in their spinal fluid.

Dr Bendlin said:

“It’s important to identify modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s given that estimates suggest that delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people by a mere five years could reduce the number of cases we see in the next 30 years by 5.7 million and save $367 billion in health care spending.”

Not everyone with sleep problems had the biological markers, though, said Dr Bendlin:

“It’s still unclear if sleep may affect the development of the disease or if the disease affects the quality of sleep.

More research is needed to further define the relationship between sleep and these biomarkers.

Improving sleep could be one way of helping to ward off Alzheimer’s, said Dr Bendlin:

“There are already many effective ways to improve sleep.

It may be possible that early intervention for people at risk of Alzheimer’s disease may prevent or delay the onset of the disease.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Sprecher et al., 2017).