(Tauren Dyson/ UPI) — Living a healthy lifestyle may help stave off a person’s likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments later in life, according to research and recommendations from global experts.
To reduce the risk of dementia and cognitive decline, new guidelines released by the World Health Organization recommend people eliminate risk factors that bring on the deadly disease.
“In the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia is expected to triple,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general at WHO, said in a press release. “We need to do everything we can to reduce our risk of dementia. The scientific evidence gathered for these guidelines confirms what we have suspected for some time, that what is good for our heart, is also good for our brain.”
The recommendations call for people to exercise regularly and eat healthy, as well as maintain healthy blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol numbers. They also include drinking alcohol at moderate levels and cutting smoking altogether. (…)