Habits That Help You Reduce Your Risk Of Dementia

To reduce your risk of dementia, it is essential to stay active, both physically and mentally, in order to promote circulation and neural connections. Social interaction is very beneficial.

As unlikely as it may sound, interpersonal relationships are key to preventing dementia. Although this disease gradually increases by affecting many brain functions, certain habits can help us reduce the risk of dementia.

In this article, you will learn about the importance of having an active attitude and a mind that is always ready to stimulate brain activity. We should also not forget that emotional stability is essential.

Senile dementia

Dementia is characterized by the loss or reduction of certain mental faculties. Above all, it affects memory, behavior and the ability to reason. Unfortunately, this deterioration is usually chronic and progressive. As a rule, it manifests itself in the elderly, to the point of making them patients dependent on all types of care.

In addition to genetic predisposition, certain factors can increase the risk of dementia:

• Hypertension
• High cholesterol
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Certain types of depression
• Head contusions that lead to unconsciousness
• Cerebrovascular disease
• Exposure to heavy metals such as mercury

How to decrease the risk of dementia

1. Train your memory

One of the most common symptoms of dementia is memory loss. For this reason, we must exercise daily. Every night when we go to bed, we can do a mental exam of what we have done and go over the details that we remember.

Another way to exercise our memory is to pay as much attention as possible to new places we visit, new activities we do, or new people we meet. Then think back to what you’ve learned: Linking memories to sensory experiences can help.

2. Stimulate their abilities

There are people who are more interested in numbers, others in letters. Whatever our tastes, although it is worth spending time on everything, we need to look for ways to entertain ourselves with mental exercises.

A great option if we are interested in calculations are sudokus, which have become so fashionable over the past few decades. On the other hand, if you prefer letters, spend some time reading every day.

3. Participate in meetings and debates

Every type of social activity involving interaction with other people and other ways of thinking stimulates the brain and therefore helps reduce the risk of dementia. For example, attending meetings increases brain activity through the exchange of different opinions.

Discussing and defending an idea puts neurons into action and reactivates many abilities that, with dementia, tend to wither away. Through language, in the context of this type of colloquium or discussions with friends, we exercise our memory and our reasoning skills. This aspect is necessary because some diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, affect the learning of new information in the person.

4. Seek emotional stability

It is very important that the person with dementia feels love and understanding of their family environment. For many, it is difficult to cope with the degenerative illness of a loved one. However, emotional stability helps improve the quality of life of the affected person.

Patient care must therefore be comprehensive and take into account not only physiological needs, but also emotional, family and social needs. In this way, we can prevent or, if the dementia is already there, to a great extent slow down the loss of capacity.

5. Have an active attitude

A good habit that helps reduce the risk of dementia is physical activity. Any mental or physical effort will be welcome. Through sport, we improve the cardiovascular health of our body and our blood circulation. Therefore, it is vital to have an active attitude as well as a healthy lifestyle, to best prevent this degenerative disease.

With this in mind, a good tip is to get  30 minutes of daily exercise depending on our age and physical condition. In fact, we need to focus especially on what we have the most difficulty doing. We need to maintain young, active and positive thinking and learn to adapt to changes.