The bad news: Scientists discovered two new dementia risk factors. The good news? These new risk factors are "modifiable," meaning you can mitigate (or even reverse) them.
The research, conducted by scientists with The Lancet Commission and published late last month in the Lancet journal, comprises a systematic review of multiple studies to reveal that high cholesterol under 40 and untreated vision loss can both be added to the commission's running list of modifiable dementia risk factors.
The commission has now identified a total of 14 pliable dementia-influencing factors, a list that also includes hypertension, smoking and excessive alcohol use, inactivity, less education, and social isolation, among others. And according to the commission's latest report, nearly half of all global dementia cases can be traced back to these 14 modifiable risk factors that (with the right resources) both individuals and policymakers may actually be able to do something about.
"As people live longer, the number of people who live with dementia continues to rise," reads the Lancet research, "emphasizing the need to identify and implement prevention approaches."
According to the study, the researchers' showed that instances of high LDL cholesterol were connected to seven percent of dementia cases; untreated vision loss in later life, meanwhile, was linked to two percent of dementia cases. And as Yale Medicine behavioral neurologist and neuropsychiatrist Arman Fesharaki-Zadeh (who was not involved in the research) recently told HuffPost, the additions of high cholesterol and vision loss make "mechanical sense."
Regarding artery-clogging cholesterol, Fesharaki-Zadeh noted that "there are certain parts of the brain that are more vulnerable to damage," and that "these are the areas that are especially vulnerable to hardening of blood vessels." He added that the correlation between high cholesterol and the "hardening of blood vessels is quite high." In other words: blocked, hardened arteries could result in damage to the brain, which could, in turn, result in neurodegeneration. It's a finding that also intersects with the commission's previous findings about traumatic brain injury (yet another noted dementia risk factor).
As for vision loss? Vision, of course, is a primary sense; if your vision starts decline without some kind of mitigation, Fesharaki-Zadeh told HuffPost, you might stop doing cognition-supporting activities ranging from reading to spending time with friends and family — which, as noted above, is a risk factor for dementia in its own right.
Dementia is complex, and in the grand scheme of things, science is still only starting to better understand neurodegenerative disease. We should also note that many dementia and Alzheimer's cases — particularly those rooted largely in genetics — might have little to do with the 14 modifiable risk factors listed by the Lancet Commission. The researchers also caveat that some of the associations seen in their research "might be only partly casual."
Still, this latest research is just the latest to underscore the incredible malleability of the human brain and body both, not to mention the degree to which the different systems within our mind and body are very much connected. If anything? Maybe just take this as a reminder that taking care of your mind and body in any way you can is always a good idea — and that brain health decline isn't always a case of biological determinism.
"We have to fight neurologic nihilism," American Academy of Neurology fellow Glen R. Finney, who was also unaffiliated with the study, told CNN of the commission's findings last month. "We can protect and help the brain and should!"
"Although there are major gaps in our understanding of risk, action should not wait," the Lancet commission's paper adds, "because there are ways to reduce the chances of developing dementia, which benefit individuals, families, and society."
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