Lifestyle Changes Can Reduce Risk of Alzheimer's

[undeterred]

By SHIRLEY S. WANG
Paris

A new, theoretical analysis finds that about half of the risk factors for Alzheimer's disease are potentially changeable, and that reducing them could substantially decrease the number of new cases of disease worldwide, according to a study to be presented Tuesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference. The study is the first known analysis that tries to quantify and compare how risk factors are associated with Alzheimer's. It will be published Tuesday on the journal Lancet Neurology's website after the conference presentation.

Factors that increase one's risk for Alzheimer's that are considered modifiable include diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, sedentary behavior, depression and low educational level, say the authors from the University of California, San Francisco.

In the U.S., physical inactivity is the biggest changeable factor, accounting for 21% of the risk for Alzheimer's, followed by depression and smoking. Added together, the factors account for about 50% of the risk.

If these risk factors were decreased by just 10%, about 184,000 Alzheimer's cases in the U.S. and 1.1 million cases world-wide could be prevented, according to the research. A reduction of 25% on all seven risk factors could prevent nearly half a million cases in the U.S. and more than three million world-wide, the analyses showed. There are some five million people in the U.S. thought to have Alzheimer's, according to the Alzheimer's Association, and about 36 million cases globally, according to Alzheimer's Disease International.

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