How protecting your heart health may prevent dementia; lifestyle factors key to avoiding cardiovascular disease, study says

About 30 to 40 per cent of dementia cases are related to factors that also increase an individual’s chances of developing cardiovascular disease, research finds

Harvard’s Dr Albert Hofman wants people to know dementia is not ‘an inevitable disease of the elderly’ and we must make behaviour changes to avoid it

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The dementia rate in North America and Europe has declined by 13 per cent per decade over the past 25 years, research finds, something that Harvard’s Dr Albert Hofman attributes to better heart health - and better awareness of the need to safeguard it. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:15am, 2 Jan 2024Updated: 10:27am, 2 Jan 2024

This is the 27th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope.

What is good for your heart is good for your brain.

This is the message many doctors share. They include Dr Albert Hofman, chair of the department of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University, in the US state of Massachusetts.

“Without a circulation, there is no brain function,” he says simply, though the relationship is more complex.

Dr Albert Hofman. Photo: Harvard University

Hofman and his team have revealed welcome and encouraging news about dementia. They tracked the health of nearly 50,000 adults in North America and Europe over the age of 65 to understand how the rate of dementia had changed over a quarter of a century.

SCMP Series

Decoding dementia

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