Nearly Half of Dementia Cases May Be Linked to Health Risks You Can Control

Almost half of all dementia cases may stem from health hazards that people can modify by choice, such as smoking and high cholesterol.

A recent study by researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that certain lifestyle habits impact changes in the brain that have been associated with Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

"We saw that most modifiable risk factors—smoking, cardiovascular disease, high blood lipids and high blood pressure, among others—were linked to damage to the brain's blood vessels and a faster accumulation of so-called 'white matter changes,'"said Isabelle Glans, a doctoral student at Lund and neurology resident at nearby Skåne University Hospital in southern Sweden.

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