Saturday, July 23, 2011

Lifestyle changes may cut Alzheimer's risk: study

Up to half of worldwide cases of Alzheimer's disease could be due to modifiable lifestyle risk factors, according to a study released Tuesday based on a mathematical model.
The theoretical analysis suggests that seven known behaviour-related risk factors, taken together, account for 50 percent of the more than 35 million cases of dementia worldwide.
The findings "suggest that relatively simple lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity and quitting smoking could have a dramatic impact" on the number of Alzheimer's cases over time, said lead researcher Deborah Barnes, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco.
The study, presented at an international Alzheimer's conference in Paris, is among the first attempts to link risk factors with the degenerative brain disease, which causes memory loss, disability and eventually death.
Only a tiny percentage of cases -- about one percent -- are clearly caused by genetic factors.
Otherwise, while the process by which the disease attacks nerve cells in the brain is well known, its origins remain poorly understoo.  More... Yahoo Health

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