{"id":2714,"date":"2024-02-15T03:40:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T03:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/?p=2714"},"modified":"2024-02-15T03:47:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T03:47:24","slug":"is-dementia-inevitable-the-truth-may-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/retirement\/is-dementia-inevitable-the-truth-may-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Is dementia inevitable? The truth may surprise you"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"2714\" class=\"elementor elementor-2714\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-55c36a9 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"55c36a9\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-065a2ad\" data-id=\"065a2ad\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-be63c71 elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"be63c71\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>A<strong>sk anyone on the street and they will likely tell you that dementia is a \u2018normal\u2019 part of ageing.<\/strong><\/p><p>A 2019 survey of 70,000 people by Alzheimer\u2019s Disease International (ADI) found two-thirds of respondents thought that dementia was an inevitable part of getting older. Almost all of those surveyed \u2013 95% \u2013 thought they would themselves develop dementia in later life.<\/p><p>But while the prevalence of dementia \u2013 or the number of people living with dementia \u2013 around the world is still increasing, the incidence of dementia \u2013 so the number of new cases every year per thousand \u2013 is actually declining.<\/p><p>Research has found that improvements in health are making a real difference to new dementia cases.<\/p><p>A longitudinal study of people aged over 65 in England and Wales completed in the mid-1990s which determined there were 183,000 new cases in the UK every year.<\/p><p>The research team forecast that this would increase to 251,000 cases in 20 years\u2019 time \u2013 but when they returned to evaluate the numbers in 2015, new cases were still sitting at 210,000.<\/p><p>Their conclusion? A reduction in smoking in men \u2013 interestingly, not women \u2013 and an improvement in people\u2019s cardiovascular health had reduced the incidence of dementia.<\/p><p>\u201cBrain health is improving significantly in the UK across generations, particularly among men \u2026 the so-called dementia tsunami is not inevitable,\u201d said study author, Professor Carol Brayne.<\/p><p>Another report published in The Lancet in 2020 concluded that there were 12 modifiable risk factors \u2013 or lifestyle choices \u2013 which accounted for around 40% of global dementia cases, which could potentially be prevented or delayed. They are:<\/p><ul><li>less education<\/li><li>hypertension<\/li><li>hearing impairment<\/li><li>smoking<\/li><li>obesity<\/li><li>depression<\/li><li>physical inactivity<\/li><li>diabetes<\/li><li>low social contact<\/li><li>excessive alcohol consumption &gt;21 units a week<\/li><li>traumatic brain injury<\/li><li>air pollution.<br \/><br \/><\/li><\/ul><p><strong>What does this mean?<\/strong><\/p><p>The good news is that we can all take steps to minimise our risk of dementia.<\/p><p>By tackling the 12 risk factors listed above \u2013 and engaging in activities that have a positive impact on our brain health such as exercise and social activities \u2013 we can modify our risk.<\/p><p><strong>Dementia is not inevitable \u2013 and you can take action now.<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask anyone on the street and they will likely tell you that dementia is a \u2018normal\u2019 part of ageing. A 2019 survey of 70,000 people by Alzheimer\u2019s Disease International (ADI) found two-thirds of respondents thought that dementia was an inevitable part of getting older. Almost&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retirement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2717,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2714\/revisions\/2717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}