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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Improving cardiovascular health may slow dementia
Protecting cardiovascular health may also keep your memory intact, according to a new review of the medical literature for a condition called mixed dementia.
The review was published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mixed dementia, a combination of Alzheimer's disease and a gradual cognitive decline caused by ministrokes, or vascular dementia, is more common than doctors and scientists once thought, according to the study's authors.
Physicians were once caught up in distinguishing between Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia, but they should now be more concerned with pushing cardiovascular treatments that could prevent or slow down memory loss and confusion, said Dr. Eric Larson, co-author of the study and director of the center for Health Studies at Group Health Cooperative.
High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and sedentary habits have long been linked to the risk of heart disease and stroke. Now, there's enough evidence to suggest they could slowly be wearing down the brain as well, say the authors.
The authors scoured articles published in the past 10 years for clues to the best treatments for mixed dementia, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
They also found evidence that treating cardiovascular problems, especially high blood pressure, could work better than common Alzheimer's drugs to slow the advance of dementia symptoms, said Dr. Ken Langa, co-author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.
"You could get a bigger bang for the buck when you treat cardiovascular risk factors," said Langa.
Preventing dementia -- one of the more frightening specters of old age -- tends to motivate patients to get more exercise and watch their blood pressure, said Langa, also a primary care physician in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"It becomes more of an incentive to do some of these lifestyle changes if patients realize it's not just a heart attack they're preventing, but they could be preventing dementia down the road."
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