To Prevent Dementia, Focus on the Heart

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hello. This is Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. I'd like to talk with you about a recent report in the BMJ that provides the strongest evidence to date of the heart-brain connection. What's good for the heart is good for the brain.

The study was done in the United Kingdom, a Whitehall II prospective cohort study. It included nearly 8000 men and women who were followed for about 25 years for the incidence of dementia. Their cardiovascular health was assessed at midlife (age 50) using the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 score, which includes four lifestyle behavioral factors (not smoking, physical activity of at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise daily, a healthy weight, and a heart-healthy diet), as well as three biological factors (control of blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose).

The participants were divided into three groups: poor, intermediate, or good (optimal) cardiovascular health. Compared with those classified as having poor cardiovascular health, those with intermediate Life's Simple 7 scores had about one half the risk of developing dementia. Those who had good cardiovascular health had nearly a two-thirds reduction in the risk of developing dementia.