Midlife Vascular Risk Burden and Dementia-Free Survival Years

Yes. The time to fix your health is now. Any unhealthy habits put time on the biological clock, and they'll just get harder to undo later. This is true if you're 20, 40, or 60. Plaque even starts building up on the arteries of healthy teenagers. It all adds up.

But don't read this and panic or beat yourself up, that's a waste of energy. That's choosing the punishment instead of the fix.

Instead, quietly start doing one small healthy habit. If you stop, don't revert to self-punishment again. Just quietly get back to it. Stubbornly persist until you've won.

It's mostly luck and genetics, but good sleep matters.

My mother died from Alzheimer's at 77 but wrote down her symptoms as early as 60, a full six years before her diagnosis.

Prior to her diagnosis, she walked her dog two miles a day, had an ideal weight, ate organic, never drank or smoke, used her brain constantly, and enjoyed a happy social life.

The only problem I saw with her was she was a very light sleeper.

Her aunt also died from Alzheimer's and was super healthy when diagnosed too.

Meanwhile the 103-year-old lady at my mother's former care facility is still sharp as a tack and reads daily without needing glasses.

If anyone wants to go down a rabbit hole, go search for topics around fructose corn syrup, visceral fat and artery plaque. It can play a substantial role in vascular health. I'm not a doctor but there's a bunch of studies posted online about this and my doctor also agreed when I asked him about it.

Avoiding fructose corn syrup is a really good idea. It's in a ton of sugary drinks. It really messes with inflammation in your body and your liver materializes it in a very similar way as alcohol. Basically both are bad and can cause similar issues.

For me personally I walk a few miles a day for 15+ years and I'm in ok shape. Cutting out Arizona iced tea (has a lot of fructose corn syrup) has made a material difference in how my body operates, I used to drink 1-2 cans a day for a while. Nowadays going 18 hours without food is no problem, I don't have mid-day tired spikes and I didn't change what I eat. I can't explain it but it feels like it reset something.

When I've been on vacation in other countries outside of the US for a few weeks, I noticed the same thing (less hungry, more energy, etc.) and a commonality there is I also didn't drink large amounts of fructose corn syrup. There's a lot of variables I'm sure but I can say I feel a difference for the better after stopping and I've now repeated these feelings when doing normal things locally.

Previous studies have shown that heart health at 50 predicts brain health at 75.

This study is interesting in that it quantifies the benefit as 12.5 extra dementia-free years. People with 0 risk factors had 30 years of dementia-free survival, vs 17.5 years for people with all 3 risk factors measured.

The risk factors in this specific study are blood pressure, diabetes (HbA1c), and smoking. You could reasonably also include cholesterol/ApoB, inflammation (hs-CRP), and perhaps Lp(a) as potential risk factors.

The importance of walking can not be overstated. Walking for 30 mins every other day will dramatically improve your life if you are sedentary. If you can't do 30 minutes, start with 15.

The work of Dr. Rick Johnson is perhaps relevant. He links the effects of fructose on the mitochondria, which then affects the neurons in the brain, over time.

This hypothesis makes much more sense to me when you think to the associated diseases (diabetes, heart disease etc...)

You can get a overview of his research on this podcast (approx 75min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Oje6n2JLU

I have always had a very low blood pressure, below what's considered "normal." I never feel dizzy when standing up, though. Is this still a risk factor for dementia?

> Maintaining optimal midlife vascular health was associated with up to 12.6 additional dementia-free survival years,

Stay on top of your cardiovascular health. Even moderate diet and lifestyle changes can have a significant impact on the last decade of your life. These things compound over decades.

You are going to die, and it's a painful ugly business.

The right to die humanely is the single most under-regarded and under-valued aspect of life hygiene.

> Hypertension was defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher, a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mm Hg or higher, or the utilization of blood pressure-lowering medications.

Whoever defined this, thank you for having common sense!

This stood out to me because there are so many lunatics defining it as 121/80 or even 121/70 with the backwards idea that the systolic is more important. Worse still is when they insist that something as low as 100/65 is optimal despite complaints of dizziness. All the while hammering home that you should chug a million gallons of water and deprive yourself of sodium. It's like they're trying to make people miserable.