Frequently Asked Questions: Research
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Q: What is tau?
Q: Does diet and lifestyle affect your chance of developing dementia? What does the research show?
- Smoking
- Lack of exercise
- Eating a diet rich in fat and salt
- Drinking large amounts of alcohol
These factors all contribute to medical conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and vascular disease which are known to be risk factors for vascular dementia.
Research also indicates that certain behaviours might reduce the likelihood of dementia. These include:
- Exercising regularly
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Eating a healthy diet. Evidence suggests a Mediterranean diet full of green leafy vegetables, oily fish, nuts and low in saturated fats is one of the healthiest eating regimes
- Drinking alcohol in moderation
- Stopping smoking
Alzheimer's Society is currently engaged in an extensive programme of research to review all the scientific evidence surrounding lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise to help understand how dementia might be prevented.
Research into the effect of diet and lifestyle factors is very difficult to carry out. This is because there are so many complicating factors to take into account that it is extremely difficult to identify the effect of just one of them.
