There’s obviously no cure yet for dementia. While there are some new medications for Alzheimer’s on the market, even those only promise to slow the disease’s progression. With no cure in sight, an ounce of prevention is worth even more, and a new study published in the journal Neurology Open Access shows just how long you can prevent dementia if you avoid three of the biggest risk factors: smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure.  

“Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade,” study author Josef Coresh of New York University, Langone said in a statement. “Discovering new ways to delay dementia is crucial with 42 percent of Americans at risk for developing the condition at any time after age 55.”

An international team of researchers led by Coresh and other experts on aging from NYU Langone Health relied on data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. This longitudinal investigation followed participants for decades starting in 1986 to examine the link between vascular problems and dementia.

Read more: “Why Do More Women Than Men Develop Alzheimer’s?”

The current study included the health records of more than 12,400 people who started at an average age of 56, were assessed for high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking habits, and followed for 26 years. The researchers found that not having any of the three risk factors resulted in an extra 13 years without dementia compared with those who had all three (an average of 30 years dementia-free versus 17).

Analyzing demographic trends, the team found a familiar story. Among participants with all three risk factors, women staved off dementia for longer than men, and white people avoided the disease longer than Black people.

“These results suggest that vascular risk reduction may benefit all groups, but that certain populations, such as Black adults, may especially benefit from targeted prevention efforts,” Coresh explained. “Hopefully, these results will encourage people to stop smoking and watch their vascular health closely from age 45 on.”

That said, smoking may be a matter of behavioral modification, but it’s still highly addictive and even replacements, like vaping, could carry similar risks. High blood pressure and diabetes, on the other hand, have genetic components that can make them more difficult to dodge—especially without proper medical treatment.

Nonetheless, until there’s a medical intervention for dementia that improves symptoms, prevention is the best medicine.

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