Three Things to Avoid To Prevent Alzheimer's and brain shrinkage

Three Things to Avoid To Prevent Alzheimer's and brain shrinkage


Recent research confirms why you should immediately stop smoking, maintain a healthy weight, keeping blood sugar and blood pressure. According to experts the study, three risk factors ie smoking, diabetes and obesity can cause your brain to shrink rapidly in middle age and even trigger a mental disorder until ten years later.

This is the result of a study of 1352 volunteers aged on average 54 years in the Framingham Offspring Study titled research since 1971. Researchers from the University of California found that smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes associated with changes in blood vessels that could potentially harm the brain. "We can not cure or treat diseases of aging, but encourages the community to have a healthy body and healthy mind is important," said Dr. Charles DeCarli director of UC Davis 'Alzheimer's Disease Center'.

"People should stop smoking, control their blood pressure, prevent diabetes and lose weight," added the researchers who published his research in the journal Neurology issue of August 2, 2011.

In this study, volunteers are required to undergo blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. Volunteers were also measured body mass and waist circumference. They then underwent magnetic resonance imaging scan (MRI) brain within an interval of 10 years. The first MRI scan done about seven years after the initial examination of risk factors. Participants who had a stroke and dementia at the initial examination no longer involved in the study. From the results of the first and last scan revealed, 19 participants had a stroke and the other two suffered dementia.

Participants are high tensinya showed faster decline in the ability of the brain, ie, test planning and decision making. It is associated with a higher acceleration in terms of damage in the area of ​​the brain blood vessels than those with normal blood pressure.

Those who develop diabetes in middle age experience more rapid shrinkage in the hippocampus than did not have diabetes. Those who smoke in general brain volume loss and shrinkage in the hippocampus which is faster than nonsmokers, as well as damaged blood vessels in the brain more quickly.

Meanwhile, participants who were obese in middle age tend to be in 25 percent of participants who experienced a rapid decline in executive function tests. Those with waist-hip ratio tend to go higher among participants who experienced a 25 percent decrease in brain volume faster.