Nearly half of all dementia cases could be prevented if people adopted healthier lifestyles and lowered their cholesterol, according to a major study.
The Lancet Commission's review identified 14 controllable risk factors, including obesity and excessive alcohol consumption, that contribute to hundreds of thousands of cases in the UK. For the first time, the study revealed that high cholesterol, which affects six in ten British adults, increases the risk of dementia by 30 percent and is responsible for 7 percent of all cases. Experts suggest that middle-aged adults can reduce their dementia risk by taking statins or exercising to lower "bad" LDL cholesterol.
The paper, authored by 27 global experts led by University College London, introduced two new factors contributing to dementia: high cholesterol and untreated vision loss in old age. These factors were added to a list of 12 known risk factors, including depression, smoking, and loneliness.
Together, these 14 modifiable or treatable risk factors account for 45 percent of dementia cases, or 440,000 of Britain’s estimated 982,000 cases, with hearing loss and high cholesterol being the two biggest preventable causes.
The authors emphasised that dementia does not strike randomly and called for radical public health policies, such as smoking bans and restrictions on junk food. They estimated that such measures could save £4 billion annually in England by reducing dementia-related costs to the NHS and social care.
The commission made 13 recommendations, including promoting hearing aid use and treating high cholesterol from the age of 40.
