– And What You Can Do About Them

According to a new report, one-third of all cases of dementia can be prevented. The main factor in reducing risk of dementia seems to involve changes in lifestyle. According to findings, there are nine factors that influence a person’s risk of dementia; these include smoking habits, depression, high blood pressure, obesity, and exercise, among others. It is never too early to adopt good practices and live a healthy life, and to be aware of how these factors affect you.

The number of people affected by dementia, as well as the costs associated with it, are expected to continue rising over the next several decades. Our professionals, as well as society as a whole, have a duty to spread this evidence to others and let them know how it can affect their lives, as well as the lives of those they care about. Not everybody will be able to make significant changes in their risk, but even in those cases, some of these interventions should be able to at least delay the onset of dementia in those genetically predisposed to develop it. This would be a remarkable achievement for society, and would help a great number of people to reach the end of their lives without developing dementia.

Is dementia destiny? Many precursors are reversible, make changes today

Key Points:

• Studies show that we can be proactive in our efforts to ward off dementia by living smoke free and maintaining an overall healthy diet and life style.
• The increase in people with dementia is directly in proportion to the increase in longevity so that the longer people live, the likelier they are to suffer some form of dementia.
• The prevention of dementia should be a world-wide public health concern where countries need to inform society that the dementia is not only genetic, but rather preventable in most of the population.

Dementia is the greatest global challenge for health and social care in the 21st century – and the greatest fear of most people.