The basis of the work that published magazine JAMA Neurologyproject data Rush Memory and Aging Project. This is a long-term clinicopathological study from Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, USA), in which doctors observed the lifestyle and cognitive functions of people from 1997 to 2022, and after their death they took the brain for research.
Scientists have long known that eating right, exercising, and quitting smoking and drinking alcohol are associated with lower rates of dementia. To understand what happens in the brain, a team of neurologists, pathologists and other specialists from the Chicago Medical Center studied autopsy data from 586 deceased centenarians (415 women and 171 men). The average age of death was almost 91 years.
In addition, the scientists reviewed the results of a battery of cognitive tests completed by the subjects during their lifetime, and information from questionnaires about their lifestyle. To assess lifestyle, the researchers used a zero to five point scale, with higher scores representing healthier habits.
A comparison of these data expectedly showed: the healthier lifestyle people led, the more likely they were to maintain mental functions towards the end of life. Each additional score for a healthy lifestyle was associated with higher scores on cognitive tests.
However, this relationship had little correlation with the changes in the brain identified during the autopsy. In analyzing the autopsies, the researchers focused on typical neurological signs of dementia. Among them are the presence of accumulations of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain tissue, as well as changes in the vascular system that impair blood flow, which can occur as a result of a microstroke or stroke.
It turned out that even if the listed signs were found in the brain of a deceased person who followed a healthy lifestyle, his mental indicators still remained high. The only thing the researchers found was that a healthier lifestyle was still associated with a slightly less pronounced accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain.
The study’s findings reinforce the idea that a healthy lifestyle provides the aging brain with some cognitive reserve so it can continue to function normally despite the changes that typically signal the development of dementia.
Professor of Medicine Liron Sinwani (Releases Sinvani), who did not participate in the study, but commented him, compared the effect to a trick to cheat biology a little. According to her, if you take two people with the same accumulation of abnormal proteins in the brain, then the person with a healthier lifestyle will have better cognitive health.
“You will be able to function normally, without disturbances, and longer,” the doctor explained.
2024-02-06 16:47:54
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