Gezonde levensstijl kan Alzheimer en dementie voorkomen.*

Uit verschillende studies blijkt dat een gezonde levensstijl de kans op Alzheimer sterk doet verminderen.

Uit een studie blijkt dat een goed sociaal leven die kans doet slinken.

Uit een andere studie blijkt dat het drinken van 3 keer per week een glas fruit- of groentesap tezamen met een gezonde voedingsgewoonte van weinig vet en veel fruit en groente, de kans op Alzheimer wel 75% minder werd.

Uit een andere studie blijkt dat het regelmatig gebruiken van de hersenen tezamen met een glaasje alcohol de kansen ook doet slinken.

Healthy Lifestyles May Help Prevent Alzheimer's

Friendships, juice and exercise can keep brains strong, studies suggest.

- A stream of studies suggests that simple lifestyle activities such as being socially engaged and watching how you eat, drink and exercise may have an effect on risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Several of these studies are being highlighted Sunday at the first Alzheimer's Association International Conference on the Prevention of Dementia in Washington, D.C.

"It's exciting that we can even hold a prevention conference," said William Thies, vice president of medical and scientific affairs at the Alzheimer's Association during a Tuesday teleconference. "Had we proposed it 10 years ago, the likely response would have been laughter followed by skepticism." But he added that "there's been an explosion of information over the last 10 years or so that really highlights the possibilities we have to lower the amount of Alzheimer's disease in our society, with some interventions that are relatively well known and have clear public health benefit."

One study found that an active social life was associated with a decreased risk of dementia.

Previous reports had shown that late-life social engagement seemed to be protective against dementia. Many of those studies were based on data collected closer to the onset of dementia, however. These authors wanted to look at earlier time frames.

The study looked at 2,513 elderly Japanese-American men followed since 1965 as part of the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Levels of social engagement were measured at midlife and late-life.

A low level of midlife social activity, on its own, was not associated with an increased risk of dementia, the researchers report. However, any decline in social activity from midlife into late-life did seem to raise dementia risks, the team found, as did poor social engagement in late life.

"So, overall low social levels in late life seem to be a risk [for dementia], but there are two ways you can get to be 'low' in late life: always were low and decreased. Decreasing is the bigger risk," explained study author Jane Saczynski, a postdoctoral fellow with the National Institute on Aging.

The findings suggest that the process of developing dementia impacts negatively on social relationships, rather than the other way around.

But there is an argument for healthy social stimulation preserving brain function, too. "The proposed mechanism is overall mental stimulation and increased brain reserve -- how interconnected your neurons are and how much insult you can take before you start seeing changes," Saczynski said. "The social environment has been shown to increase this reserve in mice and also in humans."

Another possibility is that social engagement reduces stress, thereby lowering the risk of dementia.

A second study found that older Japanese-Americans who drank fruit or vegetable juices at least three times a week lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer's by 75 percent, compared with people who drank these juices less than once a week.

According to researchers at the University of South Florida College of Public Health in Tampa, Vitamin E, C and beta-carotene supplements did not have a similar effect, however. "This suggests that something about the juices are different from the purified vitamin," Thies said.

That's not to say that everyone should start drinking juices and forget everything else, Thies said. "What we don't have is a clinical trial backing this up," he explained. "The best way to say this is that, 'fruit and vegetable juices as part of a balanced diet that is relatively higher in vegetable products and relatively lower in fat is a good strategy.' That's a recommendation we're happy with."

A third study found that physical activity and moderate alcohol consumption might also help maintain cognitive ability later in life.

Among 500 adult children of people with Alzheimer's, exercise and moderate alcohol consumption were associated with better performance on several cognitive measures, reported researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School. They based their findings on data from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention.

"We do have some concern about a public health recommendation that says drink more alcohol, but there's no concern about recommending more exercise," Thies said.

In general, he said, these findings fit nicely with the Alzheimer's Association's new "Maintain Your Brain" initiative, which stresses staying mentally active, socially active and watching diet and exercise.

(Juli 2005)

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