Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – Dementia remains a key concern for elderly populations often requiring specialised care. The change in moods and the inability to recognise close family members is often heart breaking for family members. Changes in personality together being able to identify key everyday locations have often left individuals with dementia in disturbing situations.
Nearly half of dementia cases are linked to risk factors people may be able to modify, including smoking and high blood pressure. New research from Lund University identifies which of these risks are connected to the two most common forms of dementia: Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
Throughout the years research into dementia has seen positive impacts from caring for horses to exercise. The question of the what has a greater impact on dementia in regards to environment vs genetics has been a key focus among researchers across the globe.
Over the course of life, dementia risk is shaped partly by unchangeable factors such as age, sex and genetics. However, lifestyle and health conditions we can influence also play a major role. These include smoking, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, alcohol use, hearing loss and hypertension. Dementia is not a single illness but a collection of symptoms caused by different underlying disorders, so the risk patterns vary between types. The Lund University study demonstrates how specific risk factors contribute to brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
The distinct risks that are linked to distinct dementia processes have been significant when evaluating dementia. Sebastian Palmqvist, senior lecturer in neurology at Lund University and senior physician at the Memory Clinic at Skåne University Hospital indicated that much of the existing research on modifiable risk factors does not distinguish between the different causes of dementia and as a result, their understanding of how individual risks affect the brain’s disease processes has been limited.
Researchers of the study looked into the long-term investigation into brain changes. The study involved the following of nearly 500 adults with an average age of 65 who showed no signs of cognitive decline. Over four years, scientists tracked alterations in the brain’s white matter — the nerve pathways commonly impacted by vascular dementia — as well as levels of amyloid beta and tau, the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The goal was to understand how both controllable and uncontrollable risk factors relate to gradual changes in the brain.
Adjustable risk factors associated with vascular and Alzheimer’s-related brain changes were also key factor.
“We saw that most modifiable risk factors – smoking, cardiovascular disease, high blood lipids and high blood pressure, among others – were linked to damage to the brain’s blood vessels and a faster accumulation of so-called white matter changes. This damage impairs the function of the blood vessels and leads to vascular brain damage – and can ultimately lead to vascular dementia,” explained Isabelle Glans, doctoral student at Lund University who is also a resident in neurology at Skåne University Hospital.
The researchers also identified factors connected to Alzheimer’s-related proteins.
“Diabetes was linked to greater build-up of amyloid beta, while individuals with a lower BMI showed a quicker rise in tau levels. However, these results must be explored further and confirmed in future research,” said Isabelle Glans.
Maintaining healthy habits and addressing changeable risk factors could help postpone the appearance of Alzheimer’s symptoms. This matters because many dementia cases involve multiple processes at once, including both vascular damage and Alzheimer’s-related changes. Sebastian Palmqvist stresses that lifestyle choices remain important even when Alzheimer’s disease is involved:
He indicated that targeting vascular and metabolic risks may lessen the combined impact of several brain changes happening at the same time.
