A healthier lifestyle is linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, regardless of genetic predisposition to dementia.
- A risk score, used by French researchers in a study, includes 12 modifiable lifestyle factors (poor diet, physical inactivity, low engagement in cognitively stimulating activities, no or high alcohol consumption and smoking).
- In the study, the higher the score participants had, the greater their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
- Lifestyle-based prevention can be effective regardless of genetic susceptibility to dementia.
Recently, scientists from Inserm and the University of Bordeaux wanted to know if genetic susceptibility modifies the impact of lifestyle factors on dementia, more specifically Alzheimer’s disease. As a reminder, this pathology, for which there is no curative treatment, is characterized by major cognitive decline (memory disorders, executive functions and orientation in time and space, etc.). It occurs mainly with age, but genetic and environmental factors can increase the risk of suffering from it.
Alzheimer’s: a risk score including 12 modifiable factors linked to lifestyle
To find out for sure, French researchers conducted a study, the results of which were published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. As part of the work, they recruited and followed 5,170 adults aged over 65, who participated in the “3C study” promoted by the University of Bordeaux, for 17 years. At the time of enrollment, the people did not have a diagnosis of dementia. The team analyzed the number of participants affected by dementia and the evolution of their cognitive performance.
Then she assigned each participant a risk score, called the Lifestyle for BRAin health (LIBRA) score. “This risk score, which includes 12 modifiable factors (poor diet, physical inactivity, low engagement in cognitively stimulating activities, no or high alcohol consumption, and smoking), was initially constructed and was associated with both subsequent cognitive decline and dementia incidence, based on genetic susceptibility to dementia (reflected by the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele and a genetic risk score (GRS))”, can be read in the research.
Adopting a healthier lifestyle to “delay Alzheimer’s symptoms”
According to the study, the higher the risk score of the volunteers, that is, the more unhealthy lifestyle factors they had, the greater their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, regardless of their genetic predisposition to dementia. Given these results, the authors suggest that prevention programs targeting modifiable lifestyle factors could be beneficial for everyone.
“Encouraging these people to change some of their behaviors, to act on modifiable risk factors, is likely to bring significant benefits in reducing cognitive aging and delaying the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Cecilia SamieriInserm research director and author of the work.
