Watching your loved one suffer from dementia are there any changes you make to your lifestyle which you think might help minimise your chances of getting it?

[millymog11]

Do you do anything?/have you given up anything?

My mother has had chronic dementia for 10 years now,her own mother (my grandmother) had it. If like me your loved one's dementia runs in the family is there anything you have tried to do to minimise your chances of getting it?

Finland is interesting. Incidence is thought to be linked to environmental factors - damp environment causing mold, heavy metals in water supply and in fish. Suggests selenium consumption might help - better increase the brazil nut consumption....
https://www.jillcarnahan.com/2018/12/30/what-does-finlands-dementia-crisis-tell-us-about-this-devastating-disease/

What was the 'healthy diet'? The healthy diet we're recommended is very questionable, due to the amount of carbs. They may have done everything they were told, but that doesn't mean it was healthy. Being stick thin isn't particularly healthy.

There's emerging research re dental health over our lifetimes. Poor gum and oral health has long been linked with poor cardiovascular health and increasingly now linked with dementia. Also good sleep over a lifetime seems important.
It also now seems clear that the changes associated with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia start decades before symptoms appear. So most likely good health and habits in our 20's and 30's is of key importance in prevention.
Mostly the stats relate to populations rather than individuals and so there will always be complexity at individual level. Like with smoking there will always be people who defy the stats at both ends of the spectrum.

I believe it’s partly luck, partly lifestyle.

But the more we don’t die of the traditional killers (heart problems, chest infections) the better the chance we have of living long enough to develop dementia, and of living for many many years with dementia and dying of dementia rather than dying with dementia.

I already have an advance decision in place that says that if I don’t recognise my children or if I have a quality of life they recognise as something I would hate (depressed, lonely, scared, burdensome) then it’s strictly palliative care from then on - no antibiotics, no life-prolonging medical treatment.

I'm just reading a book called Outlive by Dr Peter Attia, it's really helpful in regards to living longer and healthier

The point about hearing problems is that you should address the problem not just struggle along and ignore the issue. I have a friend who was hard of hearing in one ear for years, since her 40s, and used to miss so much of any conversation but didn't want to wear a hearing aid, she does now.

As for people who live alone, unless they are extremely isolated with no friends and relatives, they would be out and about at some time and isn't it better for them to have decent hearing so they can join in.

My mum had Alzheimers, her brother who is now 96 doesn't. His wife has dementia and wife's sister also has very advanced dementia, their mother had it. Mum and uncle's mother, my grandmother, didn't have dementia. We don't know about their father as he left them when they were very young.

My dad didn't have dementia but did have slight memory problems, his sister is sharp as a tack and is now 92, their mother and father did not have dementia and nan died at 103 after a stroke.

Will I get it, who knows, will my brother or my cousins get it or will it miss us completely and go for one or more of their kids?

Ok, healthy diet was more a varied diet. Plenty of vegetables and fruit, homemade meals because ready meals were more expensive, not banning treats but not overeating, no yo-yo dieting, not excessive amounts of red meat. Occasional alcohol, never actually getting drunk. I consider that healthy. Compared to families that ate chips and burgers every night or weekly take always. It has been suggested that excessive fruit might cause dementia on this thread, it’s more likely that taste buds change very early stages of dementia and then you crave sweeter things. Or that some Mediterranean islands have no dementia, well maybe they have a very small population and no genetic history within that a limited amount of newcomers over the years.
The assumption that dementia is due to lifestyle is unfair and creates a victim blaming narrative, as a result others give even less of a damn about what happens to dementia sufferers and their families.

I am an activity coordinator in dementia services and engage with people with every stage of dementia. I would say from my experience developing dementia has nothing to do with backgrounds, education, life style choices etc. However I have to say in our services 80% are women and we are seeing more people present with the disease in their 50's.

The assumption that dementia is due to lifestyle is unfair and creates a victim blaming narrative, as a result others give even less of a damn about what happens to dementia sufferers and their families

Or alternatively to blame, which looks backwards, this could be seen from a 'responsibility' point of view, which looks forwards. It's not 'victim blaming' to say that people made mistakes because they had no reason to know better, it's simply an acknowledgement that looking back, people didn't know the same things we think we might know now, and that we might behave differently as a result.

This link between oral health and dementia is fascinating. Is that to do with excess sugar, I wonder. People saying that their relatives had 'a healthy diet including lots of fruit' might reassess what they're saying... lots of fruit rots your teeth.

There are a lot of factors which are not in an individual's control such as air pollution, pesticides, e numbers, hormones in meat, catching viruses, secondhand smoke in childhood, nutrition in childhood, living in mouldy housing in childhood, education in childhood...

I'm not sure that we know the full range of factors that are relevant yet.

Has anyone explained why the U.K. has so much dementia compared to Italy, Germany and France for example?

My husband's family are from the Channel Islands and his dad's brothers and sisters who came to England have dementia and the ones who stayed put don't. Make of that what you will. (His dad is the youngest and came to England too so either he's an outlier and won't get it or just isn't diagnosed yet.)

Has anyone explained why the U.K. has so much dementia compared to Italy, Germany and France for example?

At least some of the increased risk in the UK us down to the higher injestion of upf in the UK
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36219796/

'During a total of 717,333 person-years of follow-up (median 10.0 years), 518 participants developed dementia, of whom 287 developed AD and 119 developed vascular dementia. In the fully adjusted model, consumption of UPF was associated with higher risk of dementia (hazard ratio [HR] for 10% increase in UPF 1.25; 95% CI 1.14-1.37), AD (HR 1.14; 95% CI 1.00-1.30), and vascular dementia (HR 1.28; 95% CI 1.06-1.55), respectively. In addition, replacing 10% of UPF weight in diet with an equivalent proportion of unprocessed or minimally processed foods was estimated to be associated with a 19% lower risk of dementia (HR 0.81; 95% CI 0.74-0.89).'

What worries me is the 'sleep' part, and makes me wonder whether the fact that 2/3 of sufferers are women is down to the sleep deprivation when children are young - as many of the generation currently suffering were of the generation when getting up in the night to small children, and the consequent broken sleep, was down to women.

I had five horrific non sleepers and spent about ten years getting hardly any sleep. I'm trying to make up for it now they're all adult and away from home, but the menopause doesn't help!

I'm an older people's psychiatrist

I don't think it's much to do with lifestyle. Dementia is just a wearing out of the brain. Some people's will always wear out faster than others, and the better you maintain and look after something, the longer it'll last, but dementia would be inevitable in all of us if we lived long enough.

If you look at the graph posted above looking at deaths with dementia per country, it correlates pretty well with this other one showing average lifespan by country

My sister-in-law has got Alzheimer's (she's 70). I'm not sure if it's possible to avoid it, but certain things might help -

Don't smoke
Be a healthy weight
Don't drink more than the recommended amount
Have a varied and healthy diet (plenty of protein, fruit and veg)
Stay active - or start exercising. Dancing, swimming, housework, gardening, etc.

@AndSoFinally

Dementia is just a wearing out of the brain. Some people's will always wear out faster than others, and the better you maintain and look after something, the longer it'll last, but dementia would be inevitable in all of us if we lived long enough

How do we maintain and look after our brains, if you don't mind sharing? I'm thinking Wordle and eating lots of fish, but happy to take on tips :)

Interesting diagrams. What's the point you're making with them though? Nobody's debating that dementia correlates with death. Sorry if I'm missing the point.

My DM was on HRT for decades and still succumbed to Alzheimer’s in her very early 80s. She went on to 97 - a most pitiful wreck for at least her last 5 years.

When might she have got Alzheimer's without the HRT though @GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER?

The evidence for HRT protecting against dementia is more complex than just taking HRT. Like a lot of the benefits it has more to do with how long your body is exposed to oestrogen. It will benefit those who go through an early menopause, but will have little benefit to those who go through menopause at 50+.
Dementia is increasing because we are living longer and HRT is not a substitute for our natural hormonal cycle.
We need to remember that there are a lot of hormones and chemicals involved in balanced hormonal cycle. Simply adding oestrogen and progesterone back into the body may not have the affect we desire. Only longterm studies will provide the evidence.
Advocates of HRT are critical of historic HRT for lots of reasons, we are led to believe that artificial hormones are not as good/effective/safe/efficacious as the modern “body identical” versions. We don’t have longterm data available because the studies are still ongoing. We are the generation who will provide that data.
I stopped HRT when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I did the risk assessment and given the same circumstances would take it again ( obviously if I’d known I’d be one of the unlucky ones obviously not but no one can see into the future).
What I did do was do a fair bit of research. I was pissed off that the hormone blockers would potentially put me at risk of heart disease and dementia, but none of the literature I looked at suggested the risk was significant. In the same way that HRT didn’t significantly raise the risk of breast cancer.
I come from a family of long lived women with no history of dementia, so I’m hoping that if breast cancer doesn’t recur then will possibly live a good few years.
I think that the current trend and, frankly, propaganda surrounding HRT is scaring women unnecessarily.

Unfortunately I think it's just a lottery in some cases, same with cancer. Why did somebody like Deborah James have to die at 40, she led a healthy lifestyle.
However very important to lead a healthy lifestyle to lower the risk of developing not only dementia but other problems such as heart disease.
I've worked as a carer for many people who are at end of life, whether that's because of dementia or cancer. I left for an office job because I couldn't cope emotionally anymore.. I still do occasional care work but not full-time, I was just traumatised.

I believe intermittent and longer water fasting (and especially longer fasts) helps the brain to clear the proteins that can cause dementia via the process of autophagy (autophagy starts with water fasting at around 36hrs I believe). Must be done safely - e.g. read up on it! Also after 3 days of water fasting the body including the brain can create new stem cells to help regenerate with healthy cells.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6836141/

https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2023/march/intermittent-fasting-as-a-protection-against-dementia#:~:text=Dr%20Elias%20said%20intermittent%20fasting,disease%2C%E2%80%9D%20Dr%20Elias%20said.

https://www.brightfocus.org/alzheimers/article/biohacking-brain-health-research-exploring-fasting-and-diet-changes-shows-promise

Regular meditation is also proven to increase grey matter.

@Watchkeys I think the best way of looking after your brain is the same as looking after your body. Keep relatively healthy, avoid cardiovascular risk factors as far as possible, keep your brain active and interested.

The point of the diagrams shows that the countries with the highest death rates from dementia, also tend to be the countries where people live the longest. Hence dementia is mainly a product of aging rather than lifestyle or anything else modifiable

I think genetics plays a big part. It does seem to run in some families and whilst making positive lifestyle choices may delay the onset it’s likely to happen regardless to some but not to others regardless of lifestyle.

Thank you, @AndSoFinally