Healthy Heart Linked to Sharper Memory as People Age Into Their 90s

A study published in Neurology suggests maintaining heart health may play a role in keeping memory sharp as people age into their 90s, reports NBC News . "What's good for the heart seems to be good for the brain and seems to be very important in avoiding Alzheimer's disease," said University of Pittsburgh Professor Beth Snitz. The researchers tracked 100 people who initially showed no signs of Alzheimer's for 12 to 14 years, with the average participant concluding the study in their 90s. Participants took cognitive tests and provided information about their health history at the beginning, then underwent positron-emission tomography scans of their brains every two years and a clinical evaluation that included cognitive tests once annually. Those with healthy blood vessels were less likely to develop plaques, as were participants who carried a variant of the APOE gene. "We can't decide what genes were inherited, but hopefully they can be a sort of a mechanistic clue as to how we can develop new drugs," Snitz said. Meanwhile, certain factors appeared to play a role in whether people who developed amyloid plaques maintained a sharp memory, including being a nonsmoker and scoring the normal range on the cognitive test given at the start of the study. "I think this is really encouraging that some of the things like staying active in work and other types of stimulating activities might be protective even into the 90s," declared Reisa Sperling at Brigham and Women's Hospital.