The biological processes that may lead to dementia can begin 20 to 30 years before diagnosis. While some factors, like age and genetics, are beyond our control, many others are modifiable through changes in health habits and disease management. Scientists have identified 14 major risk factors for developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By addressing these factors early, we can take meaningful steps towards protecting long-term brain health. But it is important to emphasise that it is the\u00a0probability<\/strong>\u00a0(or likelihood) – not the\u00a0possibility<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0of dementia\u00a0one is decreasing with all the suggested actions. One can still get dementia after addressing all of them, but it is much less likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
low-level education <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
diabetes
head injury
obesity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
air pollution <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
smoking
high cholesterol<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
hearing impairment <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
hypertension
physical inactivity
untreated depression <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
untreated vision loss <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
infrequent social contact <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
excessive alcohol consumption<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many dementia cases might be preventable. The biological processes that may lead to dementia can begin 20 to 30 years before diagnosis. While some factors, like age and genetics, are beyond our control, many others are modifiable through changes in health habits and disease management. Scientists have identified 14 major risk factors for developing Alzheimer\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29941"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29947,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29941\/revisions\/29947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}