Scientists have just made a massive discovery that could have major implications for fighting dementia in old age.
Scientists have just made what could be the most important discovery about brains in a very long time, as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a report released this past week that exercise, controlling blood pressure, and some brain training may be the magic formula to preventing mental decline, Alzheimer’s or dementia in old age.
While there are no proven ways to keep this mental deterioration from happening, this new report is an exciting indication that we may have more power to stop cognitive decline than we think. However, the government will need to do more research before such strategies are pushed as a viable method for ordinary citizens.
At the very least, these three strategies appear to do no harm, and at least two are really good for you even if they ultimately don’t work for preventing dementia. The report is based on a belief that changes in the brain begin long before symptoms of Alzheimer’s and other diseases, and it’s possible to catch the disease early on.
“There is good cause for hope that in the next several years much more will be known about how to prevent cognitive decline and dementia, as more clinical trial results become available and more evidence emerges,” said Alan I. Leshner, chair of the committee and CEO emeritus, American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Even though clinical trials have not conclusively supported the three interventions discussed in our report, the evidence is strong enough to suggest the public should at least have access to these results to help inform their decisions about how they can invest their time and resources to maintain brain health with aging.”
