Can Dementia be prevented

So, we know about dementia, but how could someone prevent getting dementia? Is it possible?

Well, there's encouraging news about that. Some prognosticators are saying that the "dementia tsunami" or the greying of dementia isn't going to be as bad as we originally had thought because we're finding that exercise makes a difference. We have a thing in our brain that we're learning about called "cognitive reserve," which means that the more we continue to learn, the more we continue to stay engaged cognitively the more active we keep our brain, just like any other muscle, the more cognitive reserve we have.

So we're finding that those people who do those kinds of things, even if they get the disease, have a longer time in the earlier stages than those who are more isolated and don't have that kind of impact. We also know that diet can make a huge difference, at the beginning. Now once the disease is in the process along the way, there are always things that you can do to help. There are things in the diet that can actually make it worse, but to prevent the disease altogether, I think there are some pretty promising things on the horizon if we do a better job of taking care of ourselves.

Is there a genetic link? Are you more genetically liable to get dementia if maybe your parents or grandparents had it?

Well, the link isn't as strong as we thought it was going to be, originally. So, what we do know about that link is, the genetic link is greater the younger the person is that's diagnosed. So, for instance, if someone's in their 50s, early 50s, even late 50s, the genetic component could be passed on to the other family members. But if it's later onset dementia in their 70s, 60s, late 60s, 70s, and 80s, the chances of it recurring or coming up in the younger people is much, much less. So it's well into the teens, percentage-wise, but like I said, the younger onset, it's a higher percentage. But still not what we thought.