Can You Reduce the Risk of Dementia?
Can You Reduce the risk of Dementia?
Dementia is a progressive decline in thinking, memory, language and problem solving skills. This is because parts of the brain become damaged. This happens over time.
Dementia is a collective term which includes a few different diseases including:
Alzheimer's Disease
Vascular Dementia
Frontotemporal dementia
Lewy body dementia.
Some of these conditions can be experienced simultaneously, especially Alzheimer's and Vascular Dementia.
So, is this just bad luck? Genetics? Or can you do something to reduce your risk?
Lifestyle factors to play a large role in helping to prevent the likelihood of experiencing Dementia. There is a connection between the heart and the brain, that is because any conditions that affect the blood vessels and their integrity also impact on brain function. Hence the condition Vascular Dementia.
Cardiovascular conditions such as:
High blood pressure (even if you are medicated for it)
High cholesterol
Type 2 Diabetes
Obesity
Smoking
Heart disease
You might notice that all these conditions are metabolic conditions. And there is plenty of evidence that shows lifestyle factors can make a difference to metabolic disease.
We also know that diet and nutrition can impact greatly on reducing your risk factors. A diet low in healthy fats will affect your brain health. In fact, over 60% of your brain is made up of fat cells. The phospholipid cell is made up of a phosphate head and a fatty acid tail and these cells make up what is known as the brain barrier. This barrier helps to move molecules and ions (and therefore nutrients) in and out of the cells creating a healthy brain environment.
When we are talking about fats, we are talking healthy fats not trans fats or unhealthy saturated fats. These 2 types of fats can increase your risk of dementia, they also contribute to cardiovascular disease and are involved in the diseases listed above.
You can read more about the different types of fats here
Another key nutrient besides good fats is Choline! Choline is important for cognitive processing along with detoxification. Choline helps to regulate cholesterol; fat metabolism and is involved in the myelin sheath (they protect your brain) and is a part of the methylation cycle.
In fact, Choline is so important that if you ever get diagnosed with cognitive decline (the beginning of dementia), they recommend a drink called Souvenaid. This has essential fatty acids and a good dose of choline. Science has shown that a low choline diet runs a higher risk of developing cognitive decline. Choline is found in protein, so as most SAD diets are protein deficient, the likelihood is that they are also choline deficient. Hence why you will always hear me say PROTEIN! PROTEIN! PROTEIN!
You can read a previous post about the importance of choline here
Now this can be where epigenetics comes in because if you carry a SNP on a gene called PEMT, then you also have a higher risk of being choline deficient. Often as females you may not see this until post menopause, due to PEMT being reliant on estrogen. You then might see your cholesterol jump up and wonder why! This gene gets tested when looking at the methylation cycle which is involved with DNA replication. This is different to carrying the APOE4 gene which is related to Alzheimer’s disease and is a genetic marker.
So can you reduce your risk of developing Dementia?
By improving your lifestyle factors and nutrition, you can certainly make a difference. If you have a family history of Dementia, then getting DNA testing might prove to be a worthy investment for your future health. That is if you carry the PEMT Snp, you can boost the diet or supplement to ensure that choline is always present.
And of course, as with metabolic conditions, exercise will always be of benefit to your health. This will help with weight loss, better sleep, better stress management and physically it will increase your flow of blood, oxygen, and nutrients to your brain.
If you are wanting to find out more you can call up and have a chat. Free 15 minute discovery calls are available to find out what you might need to do. You can book here
Reference:
www.dementiaaustralia.com.au