ALZHEIMER'S BLOGGING:

Healthy Living Even More Vital for the Brain than the Heart

I know you have been told, a glass of wine or one beer is healthy but if you over drink it is bad for you. The same goes for smoking and taking drugs.  Now a research is going on saying that healthy living not only keeps your organs  young and working but it also helps the brain and maybe also can keep you from Alzheimer's Disease.

Fighting 7 risk factors could save 3 million people from Alzheimer's. "We were surprised that lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and smoking appear to contribute to a larger number of Alzheimer's cases than cardiovascular diseases." Watch Dr. Deborah Barnes present her eye-opening research.

I am looking at Alzheimer's Weekly and this is such a great article.

The scientists calculated PARs "population attributable risks"  for diabetes, mid-life hypertension, mid-life obesity, smoking, depression, low educational attainment and physical inactivity. (Dietary factors were not considered due to heterogeneity of definitions and lack of data on prevalence.) The researchers then estimated the total number of Alzheimer's cases currently attributable to each risk factor individually and all seven risk factors combined in the U.S. and worldwide. Finally, they calculated the number of Alzheimer's cases that could potentially be prevented by 10 percent and 25 percent reductions in prevalence of the risk factors.

At AAIC 2011, the researchers reported the proportion of Alzheimer's cases worldwide that are potentially attributable to each of the seven risk factors:

1. low education 19 percent
2. smoking 14 percent
3. physical inactivity 13 percent
4. epression 11 percent
5. mid-life hypertension 5 percent
6. mid-life obesity 2 percent
7. diabetes 2 percent

And specifically in the U.S.:

1. physical inactivity 21 percent
2. depression 15 percent
3. smoking 11 percent
4. mid-life hypertension 8 percent
5. mid-life obesity 7 percent
6. low education 7 percent
7. diabetes 3 percent

Together, the seven potentially modifiable risk factors contributed to roughly 50 percent of Alzheimer's cases worldwide (51 percent, 17.2 million) and in the U.S. (54 percent, 2.9 million).

Check out this article:  http://www.alzheimersweekly.com/content/healthy-living-even-more-vital-brain-heart

Life style factors on Alzheimer's  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu9RydC1dsQ&feature=player_embedded#at=16

"These findings represent the initial steps in the development of a 'Resilience Index' that may allow early interventions to promote the maintenance of cognitive stability," Steinberg said.

Sincerely,
Marie Fostino
Alzheimer's A Caretakers Journal
Seaboard Press An Imprint of James A Rock Pub., Co.
http://www.mariefostino.com/
http://www.mariefostino.blogspot.com/

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