Dementia is in the news a lot lately! Probably because it is such a horrible and devastating disease that is affecting more and more people. No doubt you have been affected by it in some way. Most people have at least one person close to them who is dealing with it. It’s very sad.

There is a desperate search to try to understand why it is happening and to try to find a cure.

We are starting to accumulate a collection of risk factors including smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, history of stroke, depression, cognitive impairment, family history, the female sex, being overweight, taking stomach acid blocking meds, and not getting enough sleep.

Related to this last risk factor, an article in Medscape discussed the association between taking sleeping pills and dementia. Again, they cannot say that the pills “cause” dementia, but there is a connection between people who take them and an increased risk of dementia. Perhaps it is the poor sleep factor and not the pills themselves.

We still have much more to learn, but the common denominator with dementia seems to be the same as that of all the other horrible chronic diseases – just take better care of yourself and you probably won’t have to worry about them!

If you consistently eat clean, exercise, get good sleep, develop healthy relationships and challenge your brain, your body will last much longer and you will have a much better quality of life.