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Friday, July 06, 2007

Your Lifestyle and Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's disease affects a significant population of our elderly. The disease is associated with memory loss and affects the relationship they have with their family members. A lot of researches has gone into finding a cure for this degenerative disease. But recent studies has concluded that you lifestyle could affect your risk of contracting such diseases. Simple changes that does not significantly alter the way we are used to do things everyday are very simple.

Studies have found that alcoholic drinks, when taken in moderation like a drink or two a day have an almost 50% chance of lower risk of cognitive decline compared to people who have claimed to drink nothing at all. Eating certain foods, fruits and vegetable can lower the risk of contracting the disease. Apples have a high concentration of Quercetin, an antioxidant that may fight the damage done by free radicals to the brain. Eating broccoli will help making more folate available to the blood which helps preventing the decline in verbal fluency. Folate are also found in green leafy vegetables. Oily fish contains omega-3 and reduces by 70% the build up of blood plaques.

Going on a diet will also prevent the onset of the disease. It is generally considered that overweight people are at a greater risk of contracting the disease. Eating less to loose weight will reduce the level of blood plaque in the system. Exercising will also reduce the risk of the disease. and the good news is that it does not take much exercise, an average of walking 3 km a day will already have their risk of dementia halved.

Taking care of your heart by going on a checkup regularly will also help reduce the risk. High LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes are all risk factors in having a heart disease. But these factors also raised the risk for dementia for as high as 50% Disease are actually more related to each other than we think so it really best to live a healthy lifestyle to prevent the onset of the disease rather than spending a fortune finding ways to cure it. And its really a marvel how simple lifestyle changes can affect our overall health.

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