Taking care of your heart

Heart disease in midlife can contribute to poor brain health in later life. Evidence from the Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) study⁵ shows that high blood pressure, smoking, high cholesterol and diabetes significantly increase the risk of heart disease and strokes, which are linked to vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.^{6 7 8}. If you are affected by any of these conditions, your GP can help you make changes to your lifestyle or offer medication to improve your health.

Again, regular exercise¹ is important and a balanced diet, low in sugars and saturated fats, can help to maintain a healthy weight. Since obesity is associated with the risk of developing high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, this can increase your risk of dementia later in life⁵.

Regular alcohol consumption is also linked to poor heart and brain health⁵. One recent study showed evidence that regularly drinking alcohol is linked to shrinkage of the hippocampus⁹  – an area of the brain affected by Alzheimer's disease¹⁰. There is no evidence that alcohol protects brain health and current NHS advise is that people should have no more than 14 units of alcohol a week, spread over at least three days¹¹.

Smoking also has an impact on both heart and brain health⁵. Recently, researchers showed that people who smoke are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia, but the good news is that if you stop smoking the level of dementia risk lowers to the level of non-smokers⁵.