When I think about the most terrifying diseases, my greatest fear is likely cancer. However, considering I spend my life building up my cognitive ability through incessant research and an unquenching curiosity, it would not only be a shame to lose what I spend decades accruing, but it's also a huge fear to lose not only the information built up over a lifetime, but the ability to recognize the people around me to end. eventually succumb to death, the dreaded dementia.
It isn't a pleasant thought to say the least, but we don't need to be doom and gloom about the situation when there's so much that can be done to fight it. I'd like to describe six ways of drastically reducing your risk of dementia based on an extensive research review released by The Lancet. In this review, The Lancet had a group of researchers across the globe.
come together and write a section of this scientific review. However, before writing, they all deliberated and debated what should be included. There's a few things left off this list, but these six were agreed upon to make the biggest difference according to the research.
I'll get into far more specificity on the mechanisms and such in the future for each of these factors, but let's go ahead and have a cursory discussion of each of the six. And I'd... also like to discuss some of the nuances that are also incredibly important at the end.
First, stimulate your mind. According to these researchers, a person's education plays a role in the risk of developing dementia. Fascinatingly, it actually wasn't based on the number of years of formal education.
More specifically, it was based on the level of education that a person achieved, with people with a higher education having reduced risk. Unfortunately, There are some confounding or possible muddying factors that could explain the relationship, like, I don't know, increased education allowing people to have better health care and more time to devote to healthy practices, like those that we'll discuss in a bit. However, there are some clues that indicate education, and more specifically, cognitive stimulation is the modulating factor.
For example,... looking at studies comparing people with less formal education but stratifying them based on cognitive stimulation, like having to critically think or read a lot of material, indicates reduced risk in those that have the same level of education but greater cognitive stimulation. We can see that evidenced here.
We're seeing a comparison between low and high cognitive stimulation at work and level of education. That middle line there above the 1.0 is the comparison. The squares represent the average result of each condition. So for example, lower formal education and lower workplace cognitive stimulation is the worst scenario.
And then having lower education but being cognitively stimulated at work shows reduced risk because it falls to the left of the middle line and so on and so forth. Clearly, however, the best scenario is having higher education plus being cognitively stimulated at work. Now I should caution here these are unadjusted associations meaning that we don't know if people with lower formal education might be in a more hazardous working environment that could actually be the cause of the effect.
It seems reasonable and there are other pieces of evidence indicating it to be true that cognitive stimulation at least plays a part. However, if a worker is drilling a lot at a construction site, for example, that can actually cause dementia risk. Why?
Well, let's explore factor two after I mention the takeaways here. So the takeaway here is to engage in some form of reading critical thinking throughout the day. There's probably a lot more information there, but we'll address that in future content. protect your hearing.
Probably not in the top three things that you think of. but hearing loss is a dementia risk. We can see that still in the same review indicated here. Similar rules apply here as the last data that we looked over.
You'll notice that the main effect diamond, the diamond that represents all the data collated together, which is assessed by two different statistical models, which is why there are two, leans strongly to the right, indicating increased dementia risk with hearing loss. What you'll also notice astutely is that the studies are a little all over the place. this is called interstudy heterogeneity and is usually caused by some difference in the studies like the study design, the population studied, or some other factor. in this case think about a major confounding variable that could explain why hearing loss studies would have this variable? The answer is the use of hearing aids.
This analysis did not adjust for hearing aid use, which according to the researchers does protect against dementia. But the evidence on that is still a little shaky, so we need more to confirm. Exactly why that's the case, you can imagine it might feed into the first factor. If you aren't able to hold conversation with people, it not only reduces your general mental stimulation, but it isolates you. There's some other reasons as well, but I'll leave that for my more in-depth content that I'll release for you.
So the takeaway for me too, considering that I go to metal concerts all the freaking time, is to always wear hearing protection at concerts. When using your lawnmower or doing anything that has a large amount of noise. That applies for music too.
Don't annihilate your ears all the time. Although, admittedly, it's difficult not to blast Whitewashed or Composure by August Burns Red. If you know, you freaking know. I'll play some at the end, even if it gets me demonetized for it. It's just too great to go unrecognized.
Third, treat depression. So this is a tricky one, and I'm aware that saying treat depression is so reductive it's almost insulting. I realize...
It isn't that easy and even more difficult than some of the other factors, but there's some interesting considerations here. Let me show you the data up to now. This shows the relationship between depression diagnosis versus no depression diagnosis.
There's an increased risk. Now, as you likely note yourself, there are many things that could explain this relationship that don't directly tie depression to dementia. so we should be cautious in our interpretation here too.
in addition the researchers themselves mentioned that later in life dementia itself may cause depression. so an instance of reverse causation. i don't think there's a clear grasp on the mechanisms by which depression contributes to dementia risk and in terms of takeaways i think the advice of try to avoid getting depressed falls woefully short. But then again, depression can be multifaceted. So anything I say here falls short of the care that this topic needs.
That said, if you haven't addressed symptoms of depression, I hope that this offers some additional push to consult a specialist to start. I'd like to quick mention that there's a risk assessment template that I created based on what the researchers detail. So if you'd like to know your own risk of dementia, it's based on a simple point system. It's part of the Physionic Insiders, which also includes my monthly podcast on the latest research that I cover, written research reviews, detailed video analyses, quick written summaries, and much more.
If you're interested in access to all that, just join the Physionic Insiders. It's linked in the description for you. Before we get into the fourth factor, I'd also like to get into some of the additional considerations, which...
will change how we think about this information that we're going to go over. So stay tuned for that. Okay, the fourth modifiable risk factor is to avoid traumatic brain injury causing activities. This might seem like the most obvious, but there's a little bit of additional information here that's a little surprising. Yes, doing damage to your brain very likely causes dementia.
Wow, mind-blowing. Almost literally. But But did you know that it actually doesn't take a huge hit? The researchers mentioned that French soccer players that head the ball, meaning that they literally hit the ball with their head on purpose, have greater risks of dementia, yet reduced all-cause mortality.
This might signify that while they may be healthier than the general public, these micro traumas cause long-term brain issues. So no. It isn't just if you suffer a concussion, but if your head is repeatedly exposed to light or moderate, even purposeful, hits. It's possible that the risk increases then too. Let me quick point out, there are still possible confounding factors here too, but this seems like the most direct link.
There's one more thing that I'll say on this topic later, but it affects multiple other factors. But the takeaway here is... is that you should look at your head as almost untouchable. The less that you expose it to even a little trauma, the better.
The fifth modifiable action is avoid and treat. type 2 diabetes. i don't think it's a huge shock that diabetes is a risk factor for dementia, but there are even nuances here. for example, the researchers point out that developing diabetes later in life after 60, let's say, is not linked to dementia. so the takeaway is just make it to 60 and then you're home free to develop all the diabetes you want in the world.
no, i kid, of course. What it actually means, likely, is that diabetes takes a while to exert its dementia risk. So by the time a person develops it later in life, the diabetes unfortunately kills you before clinical dementia can be detected.
At least that's the speculation by the researchers. There are a lot of sub-factors that implicate diabetes and dementia from elevated blood sugar, having a direct cause, excess oxidative stress causing cellular damage, and blood flow to the brain being impeded through vascular damage. Again, all things that I'll dive into in much more detail in the future.
The takeaway, though, is to reduce one's prevalence of diabetes. Obviously, that comes down to nutrition, weight loss, physical activity, and in some cases, the use of drugs to manage it if needed. I don't think that this is dementia specific, though. It's just solid, all-around good advice.
The sixth consideration before we get to summarize all this with some additional information, is the cessation of smoking. Wow, who knew that smoking was bad for our health? That's news to me. Okay, I'm being facetious, but in truth there is some fascinating phenomenon the researchers point out here.
If a person quits smoking, they do not have an increased risk of dementia anymore. How freaking cool is that? Usually cessation of smoking does not completely reduce risk back down. It only largely does, but not completely.
In this case, at least as presented here, quitting smoking can completely revert you back to forever non-smoking risk. I'd like to check after this, but if we trust these experts, which I do, that's a pretty cool discovery. I mean, I imagine there's a time component to this. As in, it's not from ceasing smoking yesterday, but rather for several years, likely.
So the takeaway is, hey, don't smoke, kids. And if you do, if you quit, there's a reduced dementia risk in it for you. Plus a lollipop.
Okay, maybe a carrot instead. Okay, maybe we'll settle for the reduced dementia risk alone. All right, there were some additional considerations that I promised that apply across these factors. One, we've been discussing modifiable risk factors. So while we can modify a lot, up to 45% reduced risk, which is huge, there's still some things that can't be modified, like genetics.
If you end up using my risk assessment template as a Physionic Insider, it'll calculate where you are on that risk. But even with the best modifiable risks eliminated, There's still a chance from non-modifiable risk categories that can still lead to a person developing dementia. The second aspect is to start earlier than later. For most of these risk factors, earlier exposure to traumatic brain injury, smoking, depression, and others, the earlier one is affected, the dementia risk is also elevated.
These are less of an issue later in life, not that it should be considered as a non-issue, just to be clear. So in recap, The six risk factors are education or lack of mental stimulation in day-to-day living, hearing loss, depression, traumatic brain injury, type 2 diabetes, and smoking. But if there's more on that topic you'd like to learn, check out this next video.
Also, normally I'd add a nice ending music to make it seem like I'm a swell guy, but I have a promise to keep, so cover your ears. No