NACDD is collaborating with CDC and Public Health Partners to develop dementia risk reduction resources as part of a project to integrate Alzheimer’s messages into chronic disease programs. Risk reduction resources are now available to address blood pressure, blood sugar, nutrition, physical activity, hearing impairment, sleep, and traumatic brain injury.
Why is this important? One study of how a combination of healthy lifestyle traits may substantially reduce Alzheimer’s, found that, compared to participants with no or just one healthy lifestyle factor, the risk of Alzheimer’s was 37% lower in those with two to three healthy lifestyle factors, and 60% lower in those with four to five healthy lifestyle factors.[i]
These findings are further supported by the 2020 Report of the Lancet Commission, that modifying 12 risk factors could prevent or delay up to 40% of dementias, including less education, hypertension, hearing impairment, smoking, obesity, depression, physical inactivity, diabetes, low social contact, excessive alcohol consumption, TBI, and air pollution.[ii]
It is critical to recognize that chronic diseases are also risk factors for dementia and to expand current chronic disease risk reduction messages to include brain health. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s. Because of the increasing number of people age 65 and older in the United States, particularly those age 85 and older, the annual number of new cases of Alzheimer’s and other dementias is projected to double by 2050.[iii]
By taking healthy actions now – that also reduce the risk for other chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease – people can reduce their risk for developing dementia later in life.
For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and risk reduction resources, visit NACDD’s Healthy Aging program online.
[i] https://n.neurology.org/content/95/4/e374.abstract
[ii] Lancet 2020; 396: 413–46 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30367-6
[iii] Alzheimer’s Facts and Figures, 2023.