In middle-aged adults, having risk factors such as poorly controlled blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, combined with not following healthy habits such as exercise, diet varied and balanced diet and good sleep habits, is linked to a higher risk of stroke, dementia or depression later in life. If the study confirms this association and does not demonstrate the cause and effect relationship, its conclusions nevertheless suggest that a healthy lifestyle is one of the conditions for good cognition.
One of the lead authors, Dr. Santiago Clocchiatti-Tuozzo of Yale University and member of the American Academy of Neurology, notes: “Brain health is a primary condition for optimal well-being for everyone, because it allows us to to function at our highest level and constantly adapt to the world around us. Respecting this choice of a healthy lifestyle in middle age has a significant impact on brain health much later in life.”
The study takes as the basis of a healthy lifestyle, the “Life’s Essential 8” or 8 factors of cardiovascular and cerebral health, defined by the American Heart Association (AHA) and which are as follows: being active, eating better, maintaining a healthy healthy weight, not smoking, maintaining healthy blood pressure, getting enough sleep, and controlling cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The researchers analyzed data from 316,127 middle-aged participants, with an average age of 56, followed for 5 years. Participants’ scores on the 8 essential factors were calculated and participants were divided into 3 categories: optimal, intermediate and poor lifestyle.
- 20% of participants obtained optimal scores,
- 60% of intermediate scores,
- 20% poor scores.
Researchers then evaluated medical records to identify people who developed one of the following neurological conditions: stroke, dementia or late-life depression. Poor brain health was defined as the development of any of these pathologies during follow-up. The analysis reveals that:
- 1.2% of participants met the definition of poor brain health, with a total of 3,753 pathologies;
- among participants with optimal scores on the 8 essential life criteria, only 0.7% met the definition of poor brain health vs. 1.2% of participants with intermediate scores and 1.8% with poor scores ;
- after accounting for possible confounding factors, i.e. risk of neurological diseases, including age, sex and ethnicity, participants with bad scores on lifestyle factors have
a risk multiplied by 2 of developing a neurological pathology;
- an intermediate score is also associated with a 37% increased risk of any of the 3 mental health illnesses considered in the study.
“Given that these risk factors are modifiable, our results highlight the benefits, for brain health, of compliance with these 8 cardiovascular health factors representative of a healthy lifestyle.”
More research is needed to understand this link between lifestyle and brain health, as well as how certain social factors may also mediate this association.
If this is indeed the demonstration of an association, and not of a cause and effect relationship, these results were subsequently confirmed on an independent sample of nearly 70,000 participants…
Health
