Genetics and cardiovascular health may contribute to dementia risk: Research

ISLAMABAD, July 25 (online): A new study has found that genetics and cardiovascular health can combine to increase the risk of developing dementia. Based on this, the authors suggest that people can mitigate some of the effects of their genes by improving their cardiovascular health.

New research has found that cardiovascular health and genetics can jointly increase the risk of dementia.

The research suggests that even if someone is genetically predisposed to develop dementia, maintaining good cardiovascular health can help reduce this risk.

Dementia describes a person’s loss of cognitive functioning, which affects their ability to think, remember, and reason. Various issues can cause this, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s disease.

Mild dementia may present as increasing forgetfulness or momentary confusion, accompanied by at least one other area of poor functioning, such as losing your way home (visuospatial problems) or not knowing how to pay a bill (executive function).

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As it becomes moderate or severe, it can result in changes in personality, a failure to recognize family or friends, and an almost complete dependence on others for basic life activities.

A long-term study organized by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute — to look at the relationship between genetics, cardiovascular health, and dementia.

The investigators assessed the data of 1,211 participants from the FHS, analyzing their relative cardiovascular health and genetic risk score for dementia.

The researchers found that participants with high genetic risk scores were 2.6 times more likely to develop dementia than those with low-risk scores.

They also found that good cardiovascular health can reduce a person’s chances of developing dementia by 55% across the follow-up period, an average of 8.4 years. Having relatively poor cardiovascular health increased a person’s risk of developing dementia.