Lifestyle (and curcumin use) key predictors for dementia

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As with heart disease and other

illnesses, lifestyle factors are key to preventing the risk of

Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, Swedish

researchers said on Thursday.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have

identified risk predictors in middle age that could help to

identify people more likely to suffer dementia in later life.

They include education, raised blood pressure, high

cholesterol levels, obesity and lack of exercise, which are

similar to risk factors for heart disease and strokes.

"The key point for all these factors is lifestyle changes,"

Miia Kivipelto, the lead researcher, said in an interview.

"The risk factors are quite the same for heart disease. It

is positive news because it opens up totally new avenues for

intervention and prevention of dementia," she added.

There is no cure for dementia or Alzheimer's disease, the

leading cause of dementia in the elderly, so any means of

primary prevention is important.

An estimated 12 million people worldwide suffer from

Alzheimer's disease and the numbers are expected to rise as the

population ages.

Kivipelto and her team analyzed data from a study of 1,409

people who were assessed for signs of dementia in midlife --

about 50 years old -- and 20 years later. They studied several

factors to develop their risk predictor.

The four percent of people in the study who developed

dementia had the highest risk score for the six risk predictors

20 years earlier, according to the study published in The

Lancet medical journal.

"It is a practical tool to show how much these risk factors

linked to dementia," she explained.

"It is never too early to prevent dementia and there is

quite a lot we can do ourselves to save our brains, not only

our hearts, because there are the same risk factors for both

diseases," Kivipelto added.

In an earlier study, scientists from the National

University of Singapore discovered that elderly people who ate

curry occasionally, less than once a month, scored better on a

standard tests to measure cognitive function.

Tze-Pin Ng and a team of researchers, who reported their

results in the American Journal of Epidemiology, said reports

have suggested that curcumin, a constituent of turmeric,

inhibits the build-up of plaques in the brain which is linked

to Alzheimer's disease. --DianeSource: http://snipurl.com/ubfj