Two Or More Chronic Health Problems In Middle Age 'Doubles Dementia Risk': UK Study

[appalachiablue]

- The Guardian, Feb. 2, 2022. - Risk 2.5 times greater for those with multimorbidity at age 55, long-term study of 10,000 Britons reveals. -

Having two or more chronic health problems in middle age more than doubles the risk of dementia, according to a study that researchers say underscores the importance of good health earlier in life. More than 900,000 people are living with dementia in the UK, and about 57 million people are affected globally. The worldwide toll is predicted to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050.

Evidence shows that having multiple conditions is common in people living with dementia. But studies examining whether multimorbidity at an earlier age affects the risk of subsequent dementia are lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, researchers at University College London and the University of Paris set out to examine the long-term association between multimorbidity at ages 55, 60, 65 and 70 and subsequent dementia.

Their findings are based on data collected from more than 10,000 Britons taking part in the Whitehall II study, which is looking at the association of social, behavioural and biological factors on long-term health. All were aged 35 to 55 and free of dementia when they joined the study between 1985 and 1988. For this study multimorbidity was defined as the presence of at least two chronic conditions from a predefined list of 13 types, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure, depression, liver disease, stroke, arthritis and cancer.

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, found that the risk of dementia was greater when these sorts of conditions developed at a younger age (mid-50s) rather than later in life. For every five years younger a person was when multimorbidity occurred up to the age 70 the risk of dementia went up by 18%. From the group of Britons taking part in the Whitehall II study, 7% had two or more conditions aged 55, rising to 32% at age 70. Overall, 639 cases of dementia occurred over an average 32-year follow-up...

More,
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/02/two-chronic-health-problems-middle-age-double-dementia-risk-multimorbidity-study

[bucolic_frolic]

1. All these health problems

and diet is not frequently mentioned.

I've had to deal a lot with family health problems, and a nutritional support book with old time remedies written by a doctor is my go-to first source for medical advice. But more than that, there are online doctors with videos, articles. Sugar and refined oil are America's two main contributions to the modern diet. We didn't have much obesity, diabetes and gall bladder/pancreatitis/fatty liver disease before those were added to our diets. Refined oils began around 1880. Sugar and corn just increased as the decades rolled by. Trans fats came and are now very much reduced. Wheat increased, and in the 1970s new strains of wheat were added. All this not to mention impurities - herbicides, pesticides.

I'm not scientist or doctor, but it seems to me we'd avoid those 2 middle age diseases a lot more often if we purged our diets of the junk we chronically consume in large amounts.

[appalachiablue]

2. The Western Diet that is expanding globally is being

examined as a factor in previously unseen health conditions now rising in areas of the world.

Global spread of autoimmune disease blamed on western diet. New DNA research by London-based scientists hopes to find cure for rapidly spreading conditions,
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/08/global-spread-of-autoimmune-disease-blamed-on-western-diet