Reply to What do you do for yourself to prevent dementia?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]
It seems that most people I know with dementia are alcoholics, abused drugs, eat a poor diet or have brain injuries. Once the damage is done, it’s done.[/quote]

My mother developed alzheimers (mixed type) in her early 80s. She rarely drank and if so, a half glass of wine, never took drugs, ate exceedinly well and was on the 'no processed foods' bandwagon from the 1970s onward, regularly did crosswords and read in multiple languages, and never had a brain injury. She did take PPIs for years as well as a plethora of (probably unnecessary) allergy meds and she had lifelong poor sleep schedule.

My MIL lived until 94 cognitively sound,never exercisesd in her life, had wine or prosecco and dessert every night and smoked for 40 years. My dad has pretty terrible eating habits, no exercise, drinks nightly and while he is in poor physical health, at 86 he is cognitively sound. [/quote]

Again...this is no different than the ultra-marathoner who dies of a heart attack at 40 because of a genetic problem vs. the 40 year old morbidly obese smoker who dies of a heart attack because of lifestyle vs. the old timer who smokes 3 packs a day and somehow lives to 90 and never has a heart attack or gets lung cancer.

If you are genetically marked for dementia, there is nothing you can do.  If you won the genetic lottery such that you will never get dementia...then count yourself lucky.  Since I am pretty sure nobody knows if they fall into either of the previous categories, all you can do is live your life in a way that hopefully guarantees you won't contract dementia.  Exercise, sleep well, avoid activities that cause concussions / head injuries, etc.[/quote]

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