A study conducted by the University of Oxford indicates that the three most effective measures you can take to protect the "vulnerable" areas of your brain from dementia are to avoid traffic pollution, drink less alcohol, and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Researchers examined 161 “modifiable risk factors for dementia.” These refer to health and lifestyle factors that individuals have a certain degree of control over, which have been linked to an increased risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
These factors were grouped into 15 categories: blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, alcohol consumption, smoking, depressive mood states, inflammation, pollution, hearing, sleep, social activity, diet, exercise, and education. The researchers then analyzed the impact of these factors on “particular vulnerable areas of the brain.” They defined these as “a network of higher-order regions” in the brain that process incoming sensory information. The researchers noted that these areas “not only do not develop later during adolescence but also show early degeneration in old age,” making them particularly susceptible to conditions like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s, thus becoming a “weakness.”
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, analyzed brain scans from 40,000 individuals from the UK Biobank, aged between 44 to 83 years, classified as “generally healthy,” with only a few dozen diagnosed with dementia before the scans. Gwenaëlle Dodo, the professor who led the study, stated, “We found that among all the common risk factors for dementia, the most harmful to this vulnerability are diabetes, traffic-related pollution, and alcohol consumption.” Following these three factors were lack of sleep, overweight, smoking, and high blood pressure.
Dodo explained that the impact of pollution “is particularly associated with traffic and combustion engines,” referring to nitrogen dioxide, while the effect of alcohol is linked to “the frequency of alcohol consumption.” Those who reported drinking alcohol “daily or almost daily” were at the highest risk, more than those who drank three to four times a week, once or twice a week, once to three times a month, only on special occasions, or never drank at all. Although the study did not differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Dodo stated that type 2 is likely the one with the greatest impact, emphasizing that the study assessed the effect of diabetes on the brain's vulnerable areas independently of the influence of obesity and exercise.
