Dementia risk factors unveiled

Eating healthy and staying active can help keep your brain sharp, but did you know your family’s wealth may also affect your dementia risk?

It turns out that dementia isn’t as fair as we thought.

Every three seconds, someone around the world will develop dementia.

“If you look at all the things we know that may be associated with the risk of developing dementia, the two strongest are age and family history,” Dr. James Galvin, professor of neurology & psychiatry.

But now research shows that your education level can be another big factor. Researchers at University College London found that people with a post-secondary education had a 43% lower chance of developing mild cognitive impairment, a condition that increases the risk for dementia.

“Those who don’t have any high school education at all are at the highest risk,” said Dr. Joshua Bundy.

Professor Bundy didn’t take part in the UK research but studied socioeconomic factors and how they relate to health disparities. In his study, education levels can have the greatest impact on your health since it affects your employment options and income with lower income.

“Maybe you then don’t have access to health insurance,” Bundy said.

In fact, the UK study found that being in the wealthiest third of the population was linked with a 26% lower chance of going from mild cognitive impairment to full-blown dementia, signaling that having money to access treatments can make a difference and “all of these things are likely interrelated with one another,” Bundy said.

The good news is that a UK study also found that education can reverse cognitive impairment.

Researchers find that people with a high school education, along with those working in manual labor jobs, are 81% more likely to improve from mild cognitive impairment with treatment.