Tackling the fear of dementia
Genetic factors are the biggest cause of dementia, but you can
take steps to reduce the risk. Dr Mark Porter Recommends (3). Poor
memory is a common concern in any GP’s surgery, particularly among
the middle aged, who often associate it with the start of a slide
towards Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes it is the first sign of
trouble, but for most people it’s not — forgetting someone’s name, or where you
put the car keys, or why you went upstairs are all normal lapses experienced by most of us every day. Indeed, given the scale and complexity of the tasks tackled by our brains, what’s surprising isn’t that that our memory lets us down, but that it doesn’t do so more often.
Our brains carry so much information that access to it is sometimes slower than we wish, particularly after accumulating three or four decades of memories. Just think how much slower your computer runs now than it did when it was new.
Even if there is more to forgetfulness than your brain tying itself in knots, it is still unlikely to mean that you are losing your marbles — the most common causes of adult memory lapses are distraction, stress, anxiety, depression and poor sleep. In these cases any deficit should be temporary, with normal function restored once the underlying problem is identified and resolved. More sinister memory-related problems do become more common with age, but they are the exception rather the rule. Our brain cells start dying during our late teens so some intellectual decline is inevitable as we age, but dementias such as Alzheimer’s are not an inevitable result of ageing. One person in 50 develops a form of dementia by his or her late sixties, increasing to one in five for those in their mid-eighties. Or, to put it another way, 98 per cent of us will reach the age of 70 without developing dementia and around three quarters of us will never develop it.
New research suggests that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s is largely genetic and beyond the individual’s control. While that may worry anyone with a family history of the disease, genes are not the only factor and most people who have a parent or grandparent with the condition will not follow suit.
There is a lot that we can do to influence environmental factors, which act on genetic predisposition and increase the risk even further.
The single most important step you can take to preserve your intellect is to follow the adage “what’s good for the heart is good for the head”. The brain is more dependent on its blood supply than any other organ and furring up of the cerebral arteries is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s. Eating a good diet, not smoking, keeping active and trim, and checking for silent threats such as high blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol remain the best defence against dementia.
Recent evidence suggests that cholesterol-lowering statins — prescribed to millions of people in the UK — may have a specific anti-Alzheimer’s effect above and beyond their ability to maintain cerebral blood flow.
Supplements are another option: while they should never be regarded as a substitute for a healthy diet, there is evidence (though not as convincing as often portrayed) that boosting intake of some nutrients — such as oily fish, folic acid and vitamin D — may offer protection against Alzheimer’s. People who don’t eat oily fish regularly should consider omega-3 supplements.
Ask neurologists about maintaining intellectual function and they are bound to mention the “use it or lose it” theory. We are already losing brain cells during our early adulthood, but part of this loss can be ameliorated by encouraging the remaining cells to make more contact with each other. Keeping socially and mentally active will help you to do that.
It was hoped that intellectual challenges such as puzzles and crosswords might help, but recent reviews suggest there is no good evidence that brain training games prevent or slow the onset of dementia.
Test your memory
It’s complex to test memory properly, but here’s a simple self-assessment based on the ability to recall a list of words. Look at the words below — you have 60 seconds to memorize them. Once the minute is up, set an alarm to go off in 20 minutes and carry on reading the rest of the paper or going about your daily tasks. When the alarm goes off write down as many words as you can. You should be able to remember five words or more.
• Temple
• Chancellor
• Sieve
• Knee
• Lizard
• Mantle
• Waistcoat
• Pear
• Lump
• Gravel
