Dementia - Prevention

Prevention

A study done at the University of Bari in Italy, found that a group drinking alcoholic beverages moderately had a slower progression to dementia. In a group of 1,566 elderly Italians, 1,445 had no cognitive impairment and 121 had suffered mild cognitive impairment, the study found that that over the duration of 3.5 years the people with MCI who drank less than one alcoholic beverage a day progressed to dementia at a rate that was 85% slower than those who drank no alcoholic beverages. However, the authors of the study commented that since it was epidemiologic, the findings might only be a marker of lifestyle, showing that "moderate lifestyle" in general is associated with slower dementia-progression. A study failed to show a conclusive link between high blood pressure and developing dementia. The study, published in the Lancet Neurology journal July 2008, found that blood pressure lowering medication did not reduce dementia but that meta analysis of the study data combined with other data suggested that further study could be warranted.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression is associated with prevention of some dementia types.

A Canadian study found that a lifetime of bilingualism delays the onset of dementia by an average of four years when compared to monolingual patients.