As the American presidential election looms large and purported cognitive deficits vs enhanced mental derangement are on the table it might be worthwhile revisiting steps we can all take to possibly prevent Alzheimer’s dementia. The highly esteemed Lancet standing Commission, an august body of medical experts, has added two new risk factors, high cholesterol and vision loss, to a laundry list of already identified precipitating events that can trigger the slide into cognitive dysfunction. These include head injury, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, hearing loss, depression, infrequent social contact, air pollution and for want of a better description, less education.
Most of these are actionable and eminently reversible. Adopting the Mediterranean diet, rich in seafood, nuts, fruit, beans and vegetables, optimizing vitamins, B6, B12, folate, C, D, zinc and other nutritional strategies elaborated at length in ‘The Wellness Guide to Preventing the Diseases of Ageing’ together with some form of occasional fast might in addition to combatting the above go some way to preventing cognitive decline, sadly an outcome that would preclude fitness for any higher office.
