Healthy Lifestyle May Help Some People Dodge Dementia

A study in Nature Medicine found adults at low or intermediate genetic risk of dementia who practiced healthy lifestyle habits had lower odds of being diagnosed with dementia over the next 15 years, reports United Press International . However, these habits had no apparent impact on subjects with high-risk genes, leading Erasmus MC-University Medical Center's Silvan Licher to suspect the age of study participants may be a variable. Study subjects were about 69 years old, on average, when their lifestyle habits were quantified. But it might be healthy habits earlier in life that are essential for offsetting a high genetic risk for dementia. "These results should not alter the message about the importance of a healthy lifestyle to lower the risk of dementia," Licher said. In fact, he suggested the findings provide "an extra incentive" to start practicing healthy habits immediately.