Having TWO of these common conditions ‘drastically increases’ your risk of dementia
HAVING just two common health conditions can increase your risk of dementia, a study has found.
The danger is higher if you develop the illnesses in your mid-50s, rather than later in life.
The conditions that raises the risk includes high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, depression and chronic lung disease.
It is already known that having one or more of these condition can be a factor in people getting dementia, but there hasn't been much research on what it means if younger people develop the health problems.
decided to look into this, to work out what it means for people over 50 who might then go on to develop dementia.
Health records of more than 10,000 British men and women taking part in the Whitehall II Study were looked at.
They joined in 1985-88, when they were 35 to 55 years old and didn't have dementia.
When it began 6.6 per cent had multiple conditions at age 55 and 32 per cent at age 70.
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Over the follow up period of 32 years, 639 cases of dementia were found - up to the end of March 2019.
The study found: "After taking account of a range of factors including age, sex, ethnicity, education, diet and lifestyle behaviours, multimorbidity at age 55 was associated with a 2.4-fold higher risk of dementia (1.56 per 1,000 person years) compared with people without any of the 13 chronic conditions."
The link between the multimorbidity (two or more chronic health conditions) and dementia weakened the older the person was that they developed the condition.
For example - at age 65, multimorbidities before age 55 was associated with a 2.5-fold higher risk of dementia compared with a 1.5-fold higher risk in those who developed conditions between age 60 and 65.
In other words, for every five year younger age that chronic conditions developed up to age 70, the risk of dementia was 18 per cent higher.
This means, while it is important to stay healthy as long as possible - keeping conditions like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure away while young is doubly important.
Researchers said: "Given the lack of effective treatment for dementia and its personal and societal implications, finding targets for prevention of dementia is imperative.
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"Multimorbidity is increasingly prevalent, starting in early adulthood and midlife.
"Our results show that multimorbidity is associated with an increased risk of dementia at older ages, even more so when onset of multimorbidity is in midlife rather than late life.
“These findings highlight the role of prevention and management of chronic diseases over the course of adulthood to mitigate adverse outcomes in old age.”
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"Multimorbidity is already known to affect use of healthcare services, quality of life, and risk of mortality; our study adds dementia to that list."
Dementia is a general term used to describe the deterioration of a person's mental ability - it is an umbrella term, as there are many different types.
Dementia is when mental deterioration is severe enough to interfere with someone's daily life.
It causes problems with thinking, reasoning and memory - as these are the areas in the brain that become damaged by the disease.
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There are currently 944,000 people with dementia in the UK, more than ever before, and this number is projected to increase, says Alzheimer's Research UK.
There are many more that have not yet received a diagnosis yet, and don't know they are living with the illness.