Are you in your midlife years of forty to sixty?
As with most things relating to your health, the earlier you begin prevention, the better. Multiple studies have examined risk factors in midlife of certain patients and followed them into later life. Researchers were able to identify which factors predicted which people were more prone to develop Alzheimer’s than others. In other words, someone who had artery-damaging risk factors in midlife was much more prone to develop Alzheimer’s later than the individuals who did not have those problems.
People who were diabetic in midlife were more prone to also have a higher LDL cholesterol or high blood pressure, or to be overweight and not exercise. When followed into later life, they were found to have a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s than those who did exercise, who ate properly to keep their LDL cholesterol low, who were at an ideal weight, and who did not have diabetes or high blood pressure. Diabetes is the foundational base of so many problems associated with the health of your arteries and your brain, which lead to Alzheimer’s.
Reports in some of the leading medical journals offer these insights into how your lifestyle choices, especially in midlife, affect whether you develop Alzheimer’s in later life. A variety of specific studies published in the journals Lancet Neurology, the Annals of Internal Medicine, Neurology, and the Archives Neurology all point out that your chances for having Alzheimer’s in later life are greater if in midlife certain health measurements directly related to diabetes are abnormal. These include your blood pressure being elevated or your BMI (body mass index) being elevated. Being overweight or obese is not good. Your chances are worse if your LDL cholesterol is elevated during your midlife years. The sentence that jumped out at me in the journal Neurology pinpointed the connection diabetes has with Alzheimer’s: “Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s throughout life but is even stronger when it occurs in mid-life.” That’s why you want to begin the battle against diabetes as young as you can.
Another study published in the journal Neurology emphasizes the importance of beginning the defeat of diabetes and Alzheimer’s as early as possible, even during the early years of midlife. It described how artery risk factors in midlife relate to the risk of Alzheimer’s in late life. Diabetes is one of the significant risk factors the authors of this study are referring to.
The investigation studied over eight thousand participants between the ages of forty and forty-four. Their medical records were examined to determine who developed dementia. Then these participants’ midlife medical records were reexamined and correlated to see if those who had artery-disease risk factors in their midlife period developed dementia in later life.
What researchers found was astonishing. They discovered that “the presence of multiple cardiovascular (arteries of the heart) risk factors at midlife substantially increases risk of late-life dementia in a dose dependent manner.” Significantly, they listed specific artery risk factors with diabetes—heading the list: diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and smoking—and stated that they were each associated with an increased risk of dementia in later life. The study reported the statistics by each risk factor:
If you have diabetes, you are much more prone to have high LDL cholesterol, be overweight or obese, and have high blood pressure. So as we study the numbers reported in this study, correlate any additional medical issues you have with what they found.
Here are the statistics about dementia risk factors:
Note that being obese is the worst of all. So many other risk factors for your arteries are linked to being overweight. Remember that the number one association with individuals who are diabetic is being overweight.
Every item in the list is a risk factor for disease of your arteries. This sounds a loud alarm on the significance the health of your arteries plays in Alzheimer’s as well as diabetes. Diabetes has a direct correlation with each of these risk factors mentioned, except for smoking. The good news is you can control these risk factors to not only defeat diabetes but to fight against Alzheimer’s.
And the earlier you start, the better.
What Is the Exact Cause of Alzheimer’s?
I wish we did, but no one knows the exact cause of Alzheimer’s. We know that the more beta-amyloid protein that builds up around the neurons in the brain, and the more tangled tau protein that is within those cells, the greater the symptoms. All the above risk factors are associated with an increased buildup of beta-amyloid. But what exactly causes the excess beta-amyloid? Is it the actual beta-amyloid that causes the problem? Or is it something else that simply results in too much beta-amyloid to be in those locations? Normally, a certain amount of beta-amyloid is produced within the brain and a certain amount of it is removed into the bloodstream. So is too much beta-amyloid produced? Or is there a blockage of the drainage process resulting in too much left in the brain?
An interesting article published in Experimental Gerontology reports on a study done in Austria, which shines some light on this question. This study points out some possibilities. One, the artery disease risk factors of having diabetes, high cholesterol, and disease of the small arteries around the neurons may cause damage to the cerebrovascular system—the cluster of the small arteries feeding the neurons—that could cause small strokes in the area. Or those same risk factors could cause a hindrance of the beta-amyloid clearance where it does not cross the blood-brain barrier where it gets back into the blood to be carried away. Such a disruption would result in an increase of beta-amyloid left in the brain tissue.
Whatever the cause, paying attention to the health of your arteries will make a difference for your brain.