Keeping your heart healthy may play a role in keeping your memory sharp later in life, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
Other factors, including not smoking, higher cognitive test scores, and the presence of a particular genetic variant, were also linked to better memory for 90-year-olds, the study found.
“What is good for the heart appears to be good for the brain and appears to be very important in preventing Alzheimer’s disease,” said study lead author Beth Snitz, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting more than 5 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The chances of getting Alzheimer’s increase with age. Symptoms include memory loss, behavior change, and decreased reasoning.
Many Alzheimer’s studies aim to understand what factors contribute to the disease. But the new study focused on what protects people from it.
“Sometimes the responses to what predicts resilience and health in aging are not simply the opposite of what the disease predicts or not simply the absence of what the disease predicts,” Snitz said.
In the study, 100 people who initially showed no signs of Alzheimer’s for 12 to 14 years were tracked, and the average person completed the study in their 90s. At the start of the study, participants took cognitive tests and provided information about their health history.
Then, throughout the study period, they underwent a PET scan of their brains every two years and a clinical evaluation that included cognitive tests once a year. PET scans can reveal one of the characteristics of Alzheimer’s: an accumulation of a type of protein in the brain called amyloid plaques.
The study found that participants who had healthy blood vessels were less likely to develop plaques. In particular, the researchers looked at what is called pulse pressure, a measurement related to blood pressure. It is often used as a way to measure cardiovascular health.
Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, emphasized the importance of cardiovascular health when it comes to brain health.
“It’s probably the case of a double whammy between Alzheimer’s disease and vascular disease that contribute to cognitive decline in this age range,” said Sperling, who was not involved in the new research.
Another factor found in participants who did not develop amyloid plaques was the presence of a variant of a gene called APOE. While only 10 patients in the study had this genetic variant, none developed plaques.
The link between APOE gene variations and Alzheimer’s risk has long been studied; One variant of the gene is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s, while another has been linked to a lower risk. However, the new research was one of the first studies to confirm this link in an aging aging population.
“It puts the nail in the coffin,” in terms of the link between genetic variants and Alzheimer’s risk, Snitz said.
He added that a better understanding of the role genes play in Alzheimer’s could help researchers develop better treatments. “We cannot decide which genes were inherited, but I hope they can be a kind of mechanistic clue to how we can develop new drugs,” he said.
The study also found that, among patients who developed amyloid plaques, certain factors seemed to play a role in whether they maintained acute memory. Those factors included being a non-smoker and scoring the normal range on the cognitive test administered at the start of the study.
The findings underscore the importance of healthy behaviors for brain health.
“I think this is really encouraging because some things like staying active at work and other types of stimulating activities could be protective even in the 1990s,” said Sperling.
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