A US study published by The BMJ today suggests that a healthy lifestyle is associated with a longer life expectancy among both men and women, and they lived a larger proportion of their remaining years without Alzheimer’s disease.
The findings show that a healthy lifestyle is associated with longer life expectancies, but crucially the extra years did not mean extra years lived with Alzheimer’s.
The number of people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is expected to treble worldwide by 2050, from an estimated 57 million in 2019 to 152 million in 2050.
A healthy lifestyle—adequate exercise, cognitive engagement, and a healthy diet—may reduce the risk of dementia and extend life expectancy.
Also, reaching older ages is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. So, although a healthier lifestyle may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s dementia, it may increase the years spent with the disease.
To investigate this lesser known issue further, a team of US and Swiss researchers have analysed the potential impact of a healthy lifestyle on the number of years spent living with and without Alzheimer’s.
The study analyses data from 2449 participants aged 65 years and older (average age 76), with no history of dementia, within the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP).
Participants completed detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaires and a healthy lifestyle score was developed based on: a hybrid Mediterranean-DASH Diet (a diet rich in whole grains, green leafy vegetables and berries and low in fast/fried food, and red meats); late-life cognitively stimulating activities; at least 150 minutes a week of physical activity; not smoking; low to moderate alcohol consumption.
Cognitive activities included reading, visiting a museum or doing crosswords.
For each lifestyle factor, participants received a score of 1 if they met the criteria for healthy, and 0 if they did not. Scores from five lifestyle factors were summed to yield a final score ranging 0 to 5. A higher score indicated a healthier lifestyle.
