Several Ways to Guard Against Dementia

Research shows that your lifestyle could affect your risk of diseases such as Alzheimer's. There are some tips for you to against dementia:

• Drink alcohol - In moderation, that is. A US study of older women found that those who reported drinking (typically 1-2 drinks a day) had a 40 per cent lower risk of cognitive decline that those who claimed to drink nothing.
• Eat apples - Fresh apples have high concentrations of quercetin, an antioxidant that, lab studies suggest, may fight the damage done by free radicals to brain cells.
• Eat Broccoli - A study of men aged 50-85 in Boston found that those with more folate in their blood showed less decline in verbal fluency. Folate turns up in leafy green vegetables such as spinach, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and kale.
• Eat Oily Fish - Experiments on mice bred to develop Alzheimer's show that feeding them DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid found in mackerel, halibut, salmon and sardines (and also almonds, walnuts and soya), reduced by 70 per cent the build-up of blood plaques that are a hallmark of the disease.
• Eat less - It is generally considered that obese people are at greater risk. And another mouse study found that animals who have their food restricted by 40 per cent, compared with mice who can eat all they want, again have a reduced level of blood plaque.
• Take exercise - It does not need much. A Hawaiian study found that elderly men who walked three or more kilometers a day halved their risk of dementia compared with men who walked less than a third of a kilometer.
• Look after your ticker - High LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes are all known to be risk factors for heart disease, but a study of 9000 Californians found that they also raised the risk of dementia - by 46 per cent for diabetes, 42 per cent for high cholesterol, 26 per cent for smoking and 24 per cent for hypertension. There are cumulative, if you've got all four then your risk is boosted by 237 per cent.