A study presented at the July Alzheimer’s Association conference estimated that dementia could be prevented or delayed in 40% of cases by attacking 12 risk factors.[66] 

It added three (excessive drinking or incurring head injuries in middle life, and exposure to air pollution in old age) to nine already identified (including smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, hearing loss, less education and diabetes).

In this article, we will examine all the above risk factors plus others in depth and in more details.

Risk Factors of Alzheimer's Disease

Age

• Advancing age is the greatest risk for Alzheimer's.

• The human brain normally can shrink up to 15% as it ages, a change linked to dementia, poor memory and depression[17].

Diet

• High-fat diet

  • Consuming excess cholesterol, and especially trans and saturated fats, can raise your blood cholesterol level.

  • A meta-analysis of cohort studies provides significant evidence of positive association between higher saturated fat intake and AD and dementia risk.[65]

  • In Harvard Women's Health Study, women with the higher saturated fat intake had a 60-70% greater chance of cognitive deterioration over time.[64]

• Diet lacking a healthy mix of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins

  • A meta-analysis of 21 studies provide evidence of Magnesium  (Mg) deficiency may be a risk factor of AD.[74]

Gene

• Carrying ApoE4 does not doom to Alzheimer's, but it is the number one known genetic threat

Gender

• Women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to women living longer, there are other potential explanations:[74]

  • The amyloid plaques that cause Alzheimer’s disease may be part of the brain’s immune system to fight against infections

  • Women have stronger immune systems than men

  • As part of their stronger immune systems, women may end up having more amyloid plaques than men

  • Because they may have more amyloid plaques than men, this theory may explain why women end up having a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease

Lifestyle

• Being sedentary

• Having hobbies or jobs with high risk of head injury

• Not wearing seat belts

• Not sleeping enough

• Being under chronic stress

• Being lonely (being alone is what is risky, not living alone)

• Not having mentally stimulating or engaging leisure activities

Habits & Addictions

• Heavy drinking, alcoholism

• Smoking

Mental Health

• Worrying excessively

• Being depressed[21]

Physical Well-Being

• High blood pressure[15]

• High blood sugar

• Elevated homocysteine[32]

• High cholesterol or poor lipid profile

  • Cholesterol may help seed the amyloid plaques that riddle the brain tissue of Alzheimer's victims.[62]

• Clogged arteries

• Obesity

• Hearing Loss

  • In a study that tracked 639 adults for nearly 12 years, Johns Hopkins expert Frank Lin, M.D., Ph. D, and his colleagues found that mild hearing loss doubled dementia risk. Moderate loss tripled risk, and people with a severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia.[67]

• Poor lung function

• Sluggish thyroid

• Vitamin deficiencies[34]

• Taking medications that slow thinking as a side effect

• Blood–brain barrier breakdown[48]

• Head concussion[39]

Pregnancy

• Alzheimer’s disease is more common in women who have had multiple pregnancies[45]

References

1. The 10 Best Questions for Living with Alzheimer's by Dede Bonner, Ph.D.

2. 101 Optimal Life Foods by David Grotto, RD, LDN

3. Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

4. Your Brain on Food by Gary L. Wenk

5. The Bilingual Advantage

6. UCSF Memory and Aging Center

7. Alpha Lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-Carnitine

8. Pros and Cons of Aspirin

9. Read Maintain Mental Vitality in How to Live Longer and Healthier Life

10. If You Drink Too Much Caffeine

11. Alzheimer's in America edited by Karen Skelton, Angela Geiger, Olivia Morgan, Roberta Hollander, and Kathryn Meyer

12. www.creatingmemories.blogspot.com

13. Alzheimer's Association

14. Aging Well News by Healthy Fellow

15. High blood pressure increases dementia risk

16. Coffee May Fend off Alzheimer’s

17. Brain Shrinkage: It's Only Human

18. 20 Years Younger by Bob Greene

19. McCann JC , Ames BN (2005) Am J Clin Nutr 82:281–295.

20. Looking at the link between diabetes and dementia

21. Depression as a Risk Factor for Alzheimer Disease

22. T. Ohara, Y. Doi, T. Ninomiya, et al: "Glucose tolerance status and risk of dementia in the community: the Hisayama study." Neurology, Vol. 77, Sept. 20, 2011, pages 1126-1134.

23. Johanna C. Goll1 et al: "Impairments of auditory scene analysis in Alzheimer's disease." Brain (2011).

24. Olfactory Robert S. Wilson, et al. "Identification and Incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Older Age." Arch Gen Psynchiatry. 2007; 64(7):802-808.

25. The tangled web in Alzheimer's protein deposits is more complex than once thought

26. Perneczky R, et al "CSF soluble amyloid precursor proteins in the diagnosis of incipient Alzheimer disease" Neurology 2011; Vol. 77: pages 35-38, June 22, 2011.

27. Detecting Alzheimer's Earlier, Nasal Deposits Indicate Incipient Alzheimer's Disease Years Before The First Symptoms Appear

28. The Risks of Copper Toxicity Contributing to Cognitive Decline in the Aging Population and to Alzheimer's Disease

29. Amyloid and apple juice

30. Ortiz D, Shea TB. Apple juice prevents oxidative stress induced by amyloid-beta in culture. J Alzheimers Dis. 2004 Feb;6(1):27-30.

31. Lee C, Park GH, Kim CY, Jang JH.[6]-Gingerol attenuates ß-amyloid-induced oxidative cell death via fortifying cellular antioxidant defense system. Food Chem Toxicol. 2011 Jun;49(6):1261-9. Epub 2011 Mar 9.

32. Seshadri S, et al. Plasma homocysteine as a risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. New Engl J Med 346: 476– 483, 2002.

33. Brewer GJ, Newsome DA: “Copper Proof: How Chronic Copper Toxicity is Causing the Epidemics of Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia.” Ann Arbor: George J. Brewer Inc., 2009.

34. Vitamin D and Its Benefits

35. Virginie Rondeau, Daniel Commenges, Hélène Jacqmin-Gadda and Jean-François Dartigues. Relation between Aluminum Concentrations in Drinking Water and Alzheimer's Disease: An 8-year Follow-up Study Am. J. Epidemiol. (2000) 152 (1): 59-66. doi: 10.1093/aje/152.1.59

36. Swegert,C.V., Dave,K.R. and Katyare,S.S. (1999) Effect of aluminium-induced Alzheimer like condition on oxidative energy metabolism in rat liver, brain and heart mitochondria. Mech. Ageing Dev., 112, 27–42.

37. Tsunoda,M. and Sharma,R.P. (1999) Modulation of tumor necrosis a expression in mouse after exposure to aluminium in drinking water. Arch. Toxicol., 73, 419–426.

38. Rogers,M.A. and Simon,D.G. (1999) A preliminary study of dietary aluminium intake and risk of Alzheimer's disease. Age Ageing, 28, 205–209.

39. Death of NHL 'Enforcer' Boogaard Puts Spotlight on Repeated Head Trauma (CTE and Alzheimer's)

40. Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy (video)

41. Eating Berries Might Help Preserve Your Memory

42. Is Alzheimer’s Disease a Type of Diabetes?

43. Mind Games: How to Prevent Dementia

44. Alzheimer’s May Begin Early in Life

45. Scientists Discover Children’s Cells Living in Mothers’ Brains

46. JOHNS HOPKINS SURGEONS IMPLANT BRAIN ‘PACEMAKER’ FOR ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE IN UNITED STATES AS PART OF A CLINICAL TRIAL DESIGNED TO SLOW MEMORY LOSS

47. Research presented at the Keele Aluminum Conference strengthens aluminum's link to cancer, Alzheimer's disease & more

48. Nagele, Robert G. (2006). "Alzheimer's disease: new mechanisms for an old problem". University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

49. Growing bolder, not older (an inspiring video to watch)

50. Aging with Grace by David Snowdon

51. Acting Out Dreams Linked to Development of Dementia (Mayo Clinic News)

52. Middle-aged Clumsiness? Could Be Early Alzheimer’s

53. Alzheimer's stops where creativity begins

54. Study Shows Where Alzheimer's Starts and How It Spreads

55. Biomarkers could predict Alzheimer's before it starts (Nature)

    • A simple blood test has the potential to predict whether a healthy person will develop symptoms of dementia within two or three years.

56. Down syndrome helps researchers understand Alzheimer’s disease

57. The progress of Alzheimer's revealed by artist's self portraits (see diagram)

58. Is Alzheimer’s Type 3 Diabetes?

    • In the brain, usable insulin is crucial for forming memories. If the insulin mechanism goes awry, the resulting symptoms of memory loss and confusion look an awful lot like…Alzheimer’s disease.

59. Dr. Gary Small on "The Alzheimer's Prevention Program"

60. 血腦屏障功能異常--遲發型阿茲海默症病因 (in Chinese)

61. Where Does Alzheimer's Treatment Go From Here? (12/29/2016)

62. Mizuno T, Nakata M, Naiki H, et al.  Cholesterol-dependent generation of a seeding amyloid beta-protein in cell culture.  J Biol Chem. 1999;274(21):15110-4.

63. Trumbo PR, Shimakawa T. Tolerable upper intake levels for trans fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. Nutr Rev. 2011;69(5):270-8.

64. Okereke OI, Rosner BA, Kim DH, et al. Dietary fat fat types and 4-year cognitive change in community-dwelling older women.  Ann Neurol. 2012;72(1):124-34.

65. Dietary Fat Intake and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies

66. The search for a cure for dementia is not going well

67. The hidden risks of hearing loss

68. 10 early signs of Alzheimers

69. Understanding Alzheimer's Disease

70. Older people who get cataracts removed have lower dementia risk

71. Copper prevents amyloid-β1–42 from forming amyloid fibrils under near-physiological conditions in vitro

72. Role of Copper in the Onset of Alzheimer’s Disease Compared to Other Metals

73. Association of Circulating Magnesium Levels in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease From 1991 to 2021: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

74. Why are women more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease?