Having two parents with dementia makes you wonder. Is it genetic, is it lifestyle or is it something else?
Yesterday, a fellow blogger asked “Is the Precipitous Rise in Dementia’s and Alzheimer’s Disease over the Last Twenty to Thirty Years Linked to LIfestyle? It’ s a good read with some interesting facts about diabetes as well as the changes in our habits and food.
Earlier this week, the BBC reported Exercise ‘significant role’ in reducing risk of dementia, long-term study finds. They boiled it down to 5 key factors:
- regular exercise,
- not smoking,
- low bodyweight,
- healthy diet and
- low alcohol intake.
Exercise was the most heavily weighted factor.
In general, we should accept that our bodies are simply outliving our brains. Our life expectancy has increased by ten years since the 1960’s. Is it that the science has helped us qualify that personality changes and the loss of short-term memory are not normal signs of aging? I think it’s a multitude of factors that will take decades to unravel.
Most baby boomers are familiar with the jokes about old neighbors yelling at kids to get out of their yards. Many friends have shared stories about nutty things their grand-mothers would do. Has this been happening in those that age longer than medicine identified?
An aging brain works slower, but the outcome should be the same. We know that now. Informed.
Great point about our bodies outliving our brains.