Contrary to all the expectations, curiously unanimous in catastrophism, the incidence (number of new cases for a given population) of Alzheimer’s and alterations of cognitive functions during aging is declining.
The good news is confirmed by several recent studies (1) (2) conducted in the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden on thousands of cases and over several decades, which all go in the same direction: the risk of ALzheimer can be revised downward.
The factors leading to this result are not all identified, but one point is unanimous: a high level of education significantly delays (by several years) the appearance of Alzheimer’s signs. This factor would use the concept of cognitive reserve, a concept that emphasizes brain plasticity in a stimulating intellectual environment.
An anti-Alzheimer strategy seems to be emerging
It remains to clarify the interactions between these factors: high level of education, good food hygiene and physical exercise, correlations with the metabolic syndrome, with increasing life span, growth of treatments against the risks of diabetes (it appears that these treatments play a positive role in the decline of the incidence of Alzheimer’s (2)) … but an anti-Alzheimer strategy seems to be emerging.
Thus, in the absence of radical drug solutions, a therapeutic regimen that uses, on the one hand, the treatments used for the prevention of the metabolic syndrome and, on the other hand, the stimulation of brain plasticity through intellectual effort, seems to be able to prevent or at least delay cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
(1) Claudia L. Satizabal and Al. Incidence of Dementia over Three Decades in the Framingham Heart Study. New England Journal of Medicine 2016.
(2) Kenneth M. Langa and Al. A Comparison of the Prevalence of Dementia in the United States in 2000 and 2012. JAMA Intern Med. 2017.
