The key to good mental health in the final two or three decades of your life lies in your 40s and 50s. That’s our big learning from this fascinating piece. Ariana Eunjung Cha informs us that “…dementia prevention may hinge on what people do in their mid-30s to their 60s is rapidly reshaping the field. Scientists increasingly believe the disease is driven not only by changes in the aging brain, but also by years of metabolic stress, inflammation and vascular damage accumulating across the body. Many researchers now think the biological process that leads to dementia begins 15 to 20 years before the first memory problems emerge. By the time symptoms become noticeable, the disease likely will already be well established.”
Cognitive decline, this article says, is NOT inevitable. Here is the good news: “…a large study in JAMA Network Open found that people who remained physically active during midlife had a 40 to 45 percent lower risk of dementia later in life. A meta-analysis of more than 3 million people published in April in PLOS One found that the greatest reductions in dementia risk came from how people behaved in midlife and were associated with seven to eight hours of sleep, at least 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week, and fewer than eight sedentary hours a day… studies also indicate that exercise, sleep, social engagement and other healthy habits can help support brain health well into a person’s 70s and 80s….
Last year, a 30-year-study involving 100,000 people found that adults who stick to diets rich in plant-based foods and eat fewer ultra-processed foods during their 40s, 50s, and 60s not only have a higher likelihood of reaching their 70th birthday free of major chronic disease — but also still performing normally on cognitive tests and without depression…
Exercise, brain-imaging research suggests, may help preserve regions involved in memory and executive function, slowing some forms of age-related shrinkage. Increasingly, scientists describe exercise not simply as healthy behavior, but as a form of neurological maintenance…
…Scientists now estimate that roughly 45 percent of cases could potentially be delayed or prevented through changes to modifiable risk factors.”
Not only are good sleep, work, dietary, exercise & social habits positive drivers for mental health in later years, they appear to be the only things we can to look after our mental health in later life; medicines in particular appear to be close to useless when dealing with conditions like dementia because by the time the meds are prescribed, the brain damage is already done.
Negative drivers of mental health this article says are high LDL cholesterol and hearing loss “each account for roughly 7 percent of dementia cases worldwide, while depression and traumatic brain injury each account for about 3 percent. Physical inactivity, diabetes, smoking and hypertension were each linked to about 2 percent of cases, with obesity and excessive alcohol use contributing an estimated 1 percent.”
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