Maintaining memory is about more than just keeping the mind active, eating right and exercise.
Memory problems are one of the key symptoms of dementia.
Memory problems are one of the key symptoms of dementia.
A folate deficiency is linked to a tripling in the chance of developing dementia in older people, research finds.
Folates include vitamin B9, folacin and folic acid.
Healthy adults should get around 400mcg per day to prevent a deficiency.
Foods that are high in folates include leafy greens, beets, citrus fruits, broccoli, eggs and asparagus.
Folates are also usually contained in multivitamin supplements.
Low levels of vitamin B12 and folate have both been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease by multiple studies.
This link has been observed by researchers for more than three decades.
A deficiency in B12 or folate can cause higher levels of the amino acid homocysteine in the body.
Homocysteine has a neurotoxic effect and could lead to neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s.
For the current study, 518 people over the age of 65 were tracked for two years.
They were given blood tests for levels of folate, vitamin B12 and the protein homosysteine, along with cognitive tests.
The results showed that 45 people had developed dementia by the end of the study.
People who were deficient in folates were 3.5 times more likely to develop dementia, the researchers found.
Dementia was also more likely in people whose folate levels dropped over the two years of the study.
The study’s authors write:
“In this prospective study of a community population, lower
folate concentrations predicted incident dementia and AD over
a 2.4 year follow-up period…Over the follow-up period, dementia occurred more commonly in those with a relative decline in folate and vitamin B12 concentrations or a relative increase in homocysteine concentrations.”
A good diet is repeatedly linked by research to a reduced risk of dementia.
One study has found that people who eat more nuts, fish, poultry and certain fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, research finds.
Set against this, those who eat more red meats, organ meats, butter and high-fat dairy products have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s.
The study was published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (Kim et al., 2019).
It takes 20-30 years for the brain changes leading to Alzheimer’s to occur.
It takes 20-30 years for the brain changes leading to Alzheimer’s to occur.
The very best lifestyle change a person can make in midlife to protect against cognitive decline later is taking more exercise.
The results come from a study of 387 women in Australia who were followed from 1992 when they were between 45 and 55-years-old.
They were followed for over 20 years.
The researchers recorded all sorts of lifestyle factors including:
Each person was given simple tests of memory, such as the ability to remember a list of ten unrelated items.
Dr Cassandra Szoeke, who led the study, said:
“We now know that brain changes associated with dementia take 20 to 30 years to develop.
The evolution of cognitive decline is slow and steady, so we needed to study people over a long time period.
We used a verbal memory test because that’s one of the first things to decline when you develop Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Out of all the lifestyle changes, the number one protective factor was exercise.
It didn’t matter what type — from walking the dog to climbing a mountain — exercise was the lifestyle factor that provided the greatest protective effect against memory loss.
Dr Szoeke said:
“The message from our study is very simple.
Do more physical activity, it doesn’t matter what, just move more and more often.
It helps your heart, your body and prevents obesity and diabetes and now we know it can help your brain.
It could even be something as simple as going for a walk, we weren’t restrictive in our study about what type.”
You should start as early as possible, Dr Szoeke said:
“We expected it was the healthy habits later in life that would make a difference but we were surprised to find that the effect of exercise was cumulative.
So every one of those 20 years mattered.
If you don’t start at 40, you could miss one or two decades of improvement to your cognition because every bit helps.
That said, even once you’re 50 you can make up for lost time.”
The study was published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (Szoeke et al., 2016).
Participants who took the supplements for three years had brains that were almost two years younger.
Participants who took the supplements for three years had brains that were almost two years younger.
Taking a daily multivitamin slows cognitive decline by 60 percent.
Participants who took the multivitamin for three years had brains that were almost two years younger.
The multivitamin was particularly useful for those suffering from cardiovascular disease.
People with cardiovascular disease are at a higher risk of cognitive impairment.
Professor Laura D. Baker, the study’s first author, said:
“There’s an urgent need for safe and affordable interventions to protect cognition against decline in older adults.”
The conclusions come from a study of over 2,000 people aged over 65.
The study tested the effects of a multivitamin versus a control group, as well as cocoa extract.
Professor Baker explained the results:
“Our study showed that although cocoa extract did not affect cognition, daily multivitamin-mineral supplementation resulted in statistically significant cognitive improvement.
This is the first evidence of cognitive benefit in a large longer-term study of multivitamin supplementation in older adults.”
There are several micronutrients that are required for healthy body and brain function that may be deficient in older adults.
This might explain the study’s findings.
Professor Baker, though, was cautious:
“It’s too early to recommend daily multivitamin supplementation to prevent cognitive decline.
While these preliminary findings are promising, additional research is needed in a larger and more diverse group of people.
Also, we still have work to do to better understand why the multivitamin might benefit cognition in older adults.”
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia (Baker 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.
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).
Normally people’s brains shrink by about 5% every decade after the age of 40 but this could be prevented.
Normally people’s brains shrink by about 5% every decade after the age of 40 but this could be prevented.
Exercise increases brain size and so may help stop brain shrinkage with age.
In some of the best evidence to date, exercise was shown to increase the size of the hippocampus, a brain structure critical for memory and other functions.
So far, studies have mostly shown the connection between exercise and brain size in rodents.
Researchers followed people aged 24 to 76 for up to two years in a range of separate studies.
They looked at the effects of walking, cycling, treadmill running and general aerobic exercise.
Most people did around 2-5 sessions per week.
The results showed that left hippocampul volume was increased in people who exercised.
Dr Joseph Firth, the study’s first author, said:
“When you exercise you produce a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which may help to prevent age-related decline by reducing the deterioration of the brain.
Our data showed that, rather than actually increasing the size of the hippocampus per se, the main ‘brain benefits’ are due to aerobic exercise slowing down the deterioration in brain size.
In other words, exercise can be seen as a maintenance program for the brain.”
The study reviewed 14 separate clinical trials, including brain scans from 737 people.
This is some of the most definitive evidence yet published of the beneficial effects of exercise on brain health.
Normally people’s brains shrink by about 5% every decade after the age of 40.
Exercise is one of the few interventions proven to slow this process down.
The study was published in the journal NeuroImage (Firth et al., 2018).
Scientists tracked elderly participants for years and discovered this common food’s powerful brain-protective effects.
Adopting this diet even in later life could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by a quarter.
Digital habits might be better for your brain than you think.
Many factors can reduce the risk of developing dementia, such as a healthy lifestyle.
Many factors can reduce the risk of developing dementia, such as a healthy lifestyle.
Being calm and mature as an adolescent is linked to a significantly lower risk of dementia decades later.
However, being neurotic is linked to a higher risk of dementia in later life.
Neuroticism is a personality trait that is strongly linked to anxiety, sadness, irritability and self-consciousness.
Neurotic people experience more social anxiety because social situations can be stressful anyway and the neurotic mind tends to focus on the negative.
A second personality trait linked to an increased risk of dementia is a lack of conscientiousness.
People who lack conscientiousness tend to be inefficient and undisciplined — and they tend not to aim for achievement.
Personality, though, is not destiny, when it comes to dementia — good brain health is about nature and nurture.
Many factors can reduce the risk of developing dementia, such as a healthy lifestyle, including eating properly and getting enough exercise.
Keeping the mind active is also thought to reduce the risk of dementia.
Learning new activities, travel and deepening social relationships may all be beneficial.
The conclusions about personality come from a study including 82,232 high school students who were tracked from 1960 until recently.
They were given personality surveys and tested for any signs of dementia.
The results showed that calm and mature adolescents were significantly less likely to develop dementia over 50 years later.
A global personality factor including calm, maturity, tidiness and social sensitivity was linked to a lower risk of dementia.
The factors found roughly translate to what other studies have found: that high neuroticism and low conscientiousness are linked to dementia risk
The study’s authors write:
“Calm is an indicator of low levels of Big Five neuroticism, many facets of which are pronounced near-term risk factors for dementia in older persons.
Explanations for these associations often involve physiological responses to chronic stress, such as dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, leading to ongoing glucocorticoid activity.”
Being mature reflects conscientiousness, the authors explain:
“Maturity reflects task and goal orientation, reliability, and responsibility, features of the Big Five domain of conscientiousness.
Later-life conscientiousness also appears to be protective against dementia.”
The study was published in the JAMA Psychiatry (Chapman et al., 2019).
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