Avoiding These Three Vascular Health Risk Factors in Midlife Can Help You Delay Dementia for About 13 Years, Study Suggests

Up to four in 10 Americans who reach age 55 can go on to develop dementia, with the risk rising sharply as they age. But new research suggests that avoiding three specific risk factors in middle age could help delay cognitive decline, potentially giving people more years of healthy brain function. A study published August 5 in the journal Neurology Open Access found that people who avoided high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking in midlife had, on average, about 12.6 more dementia-free years than those with all three risk factors.

Past studies have linked vascular health and brain health, suggesting that what’s good for the heart may also help protect the brain. But with the new work, researchers hoped to frame that connection in a different way—not just as reduced risk, but as time gained without dementia. At the beginning of the study, the participants had an average age of 56 and were dementia-free.

But some of them smoked, had high blood pressure or had diabetes—or some combination of the three—while others didn’t. These vascular factors were chosen because all three are major modifiable risk factors, or conditions that a person can change, linked with dementia and death. Health and death records revealed that 3,008 of the participants went on to develop dementia, while 5,238 died without experiencing the condition.

Individuals who had all three risk factors at midlife were 2.7 times as likely to develop dementia as those who had none, the team found. What’s more, participants who avoided the risk factors at middle age enjoyed an average of 30.1 dementia-free years, while those who had all three had 17.5 dementia-free years. More than seven million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s the most common form of dementia, accounting for up to 80 percent of all cases. You don’t have to avoid all three risk factors in middle age to see a benefit, according to the study. Compared to participants who experienced all three, those who avoided just one risk factor at midlife gained an estimated four additional dementia-free years, while those who avoided two got another nine years.

Still, the study can’t prove that avoiding smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes directly caused the dementia delay, only that there is an association between their absence and years without the cognitive condition. And improving heart health isn’t a fix-all—other factors, like diet, genetics and exposure to environmental pollution, can influence the risk of cognitive decline. But with no known cure for dementia, research suggests it’s one of the steps people can take to help protect their brain health as they age.