Top Risk Factors for Alzheimer's Disease: What You Need to Know

9 Common Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease

Below we’ve mentioned 9 risk factors that increase one’s susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease.

Age

Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's. The risk of being affected doubles about nearly every five years after sixty-five years.

At age 85 and above, nearly one in three individuals has the disorder. The brain changes in normal aging might increase the vulnerability of the disease while Alzheimer's is not part of normal aging.

Family history and genetics

Family history and genetics also become very critical in the risk of developing Alzheimer's. A person is at increased risk of acquiring this terrible disease if their immediate family member has had Alzheimer's.

Lastly, some genes have been associated with increased risk, especially the apolipoprotein genes. The APOE ε4 variant is a well-known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease. However, the existence of the gene does not suggest that a patient will develop or experience

Cardiovascular Health

Another high risk factor in Alzheimer's is to do with cardiovascular health or, in other words, the activities associated with the heart itself or with blood flow-associated vessels. High risks for Alzheimer's have been linked to a couple of activities.

These could culminate in reduced blood supply to the brain and in the damage of the blood-brain barrier; this could be what opens the floodgates to the increased susceptibility of the brain to the plaques and tangles that ultimately define Alzheimer's.

This works by keeping a good cardio health through exercise, proper diet, and avoiding predisposing factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.

Lifestyle and Environmental Factors

Other risk factors of AD include lifestyle and environmental factors. Together with physical inactivity, an unhealthy diet, and cognitive passivity increase vulnerability to cognitive decline.

On the other hand, routine physical activities, a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids, as well as reading, doing puzzles, or new skills, appear to protect against AD.

It has also been proven that social interactions and maintaining healthy relationships with family and friends reduce the chances of Alzheimer's since social interactions stimulate the brain, and lead to cognitive reserve.

Head Injuries

The second most common risk is head injury. A report was made showing that head trauma is associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in addition to other dementias.

The risk was highest in those who had multiple TBIs or very severe head trauma. How exactly TBI raises the risk for AD is not clear, although it is believed that inflammation because of injury and separation from normal brain function may contribute to the risk.

Avoiding head injuries, especially in high-risk activities such as contact sports, is very important in reducing this risk.

Education and Cognitive Reserve

Education and cognitive reserve predict it: Cognitive reserve could be postulated today by stating that the brain is resilient to the pathological process of AD and brain damage; hence, it can reorganize its neural networks to support compensation for cognitive deterioration.

A person is less likely to have Alzheimer's with more education and being mentally active throughout life.

It has been noticed that the risk of being affected by Alzheimer's is low in those individuals who have received higher levels of formal education. Or even at the time of developing the disease, the possibility of their progression is low.

This is accredited to the fact that education allows individuals to form neural connections, which carry a reserve against cognitive decline.

Gender

It's not only the genes, but gender also makes a difference in the risk factor towards Alzheimer's. Women have a greater tendency to suffer from Alzheimer's compared to men. Nearly two-thirds of Alzheimer's patients in the U.S. are women.

Since women live longer than men and age is a big risk factor, that alone would probably not be enough to explain the sex difference. Possible hormonal factors can explain why the increased risk is in females, particularly a fall in estrogen after menopause.

Perhaps it is the explanation given in current studies on hormones and other gender-specific factors in Alzheimer's disease, which will pave the way for interventions to be made more specific in the future.

Depression and Mental Health

Depression and Mental Health disorders have also been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer's. Those individuals who have experienced levels of depression, particularly those that are either chronic or that occur late in life, have a heightened propensity to contract Alzheimer's.

The inter-relationship between depression and Alzheimer's has heretofore been one that is complex. Some researchers have even put forward the idea that depression is an early symptom of Alzheimer's and not necessarily a separate and independent risk-causing factor.

However, the relation to mental health and Alzheimer's must emphasize the necessity to provide such mental health issues and treatment from inception at an early age enough—more so in older adults, as part of an all-out policy of wiping out the risk feature of Alzheimer's.

Sleeping Schedules

It has been flagged up for the record that sleeping schedules and ailments, such as sleep apnea, combine as significant risk factors for causing the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Poor sleep, especially if it becomes chronic, is hugely connected to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. During sleep, the brain clears out a protein known as amyloid, which forms the characteristic plaques seen in Alzheimer's.

Therefore, through the interference of that process, poor or disrupted sleep can turn out to create a build-up of the protein amyloid, which will increase one's disease risk.

One should make sure their brain is healthy by receiving plenty of quality sleep, and in this rests the possibility of reducing the chance of Alzheimer's.

Conclusion

There are far too many risk factors for Alzheimer's, and with some people, there are elements such as age, genetics, cardiovascular health, lifestyle, head injuries, education, gender, mental health, and patterns of sleeping.