5. Keep Your Heart Strong

Six Recommendations:

1. Know your blood pressure numbers; it needs to be close to 120/80.
   
   
2. Know your cholesterol numbers; your LDL (bad cholesterol) should be less than 100, and your HDL (good cholesterol) should be higher than 40
   
   
3. Minimize salt in your food; eat a heart healthy diet
   
   
4. Shed a few pounds
   
   
5. Review your list of medications with your doctor; the fewer the better; takes the ones you need on a regular basis
   
   
6. Take your vascular health seriously; it can extend your life quite a bit.

There are more than 100 billion cells, called neurons, in the brain.  Each neuron makes thousands of other connections with other neurons and as such there are trillions of interconnections, called synapses.  They require lots of energy and nutrients from blood. The average brain weighs about 3 pounds, or about 2% of body weight, yet it consumes 20% of oxygen and other nutrients in the blood.  Vascular risk factors impair good blood flow to the brain lead to many problems including memory loss.  They may eventually get a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Numerous studies have shown the patients with high blood pressure are two or three times more likely to develop Alzheimer disease.  Patients who have high cholesterol also are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer disease.  Diabetes contributes to atherosclerosis and also doubles ones risk of developing Alzheimer disease.  In fact, a person who has all the negative vascular risk factors is 16 times more likely to experience a complete deterioration in his or her cognitive abilities and become demented. 

Let’s put these numbers in perspective.  People in their 70s have an approximately 3% risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.  When you do the math, 16 times three, you realize that a person with multiple vascular risk factors has a 48% chance of developing Alzheimer’s. Having a family member with late-onset Alzheimer’s would double the risk, from 3% to 6%. In other words, having diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking is a lot more concerning than have grand-parents with Alzheimer’s disease.