How Healthy Lifestyle Can Reduce Dementia Risk? | Odeta Stuikys Rose

Dementia (also known as neurocognitive disorder) is a group of symptoms caused by disorders affecting the brain. Dementia affects person’s ability to perform daily tasks due to dementia people face many problems like memory loss, low thinking process, problem in speaking, low learning capacity.
Dementia is a rapidly growing health problem. Every year nearly 10 million peoples get affected by dementia. Dementia can happen to anyone but it’s more common after the age of 65.
Odeta Stuikys Rose (Health and fitness expert from Australia) says adopting a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of dementia in people. Study also shows that those who adopt a healthy lifestyle have a reduced risk of dementia in later life.

Healthy lifestyle includes:

1. Regular exercise
2. Don’t smoke
3. Avoiding the harmful use of alcohol
4. Controlling body weight
5. Eating a healthy diet

Regular exercise

People who are physically active have lower risk of dementia. Even small amount of exercise like walking for 10 minutes seem to be good for your heart and brain. Experts recommend at least 30 minutes of daily exercise to reduce risk of dementia.

Exercise Tips
• Go for a morning walk
• Do push-ups
• Try Yoga
• Ride a bicycle
• Swimming
• Meditation is also good for your brain

Don’t Smoke

Smoking increases your risk of developing dementia. Smoking can cause type-2 diabetes, cancer, stroke and other conditions. It causes your arteries to narrow, which can raise blood pressure, it also damage blood vessels in the brain.

Tips to quit smoking
• Try nicotine replacement therapy
• Set a date to quit — and stick to it
• Ask your family and friends for support
• Remind yourself again and again why you want to quit

Stop Drinking

Drinking an extreme amount of alcohol damage your brain and increase your risk of dementia. Long-term excessive alcohol consumption reduce the volume of the brain's white matter, which helps to transmit signals between different brain regions. This can lead to issues with the way the brain functions. Experts recommend not more than 2 standard drinks per day for both men and women.

Tips to stop drinking
• Set yourself a limit
• Try alcohol free drinks
• Socialize without alcohol, such as at group exercise classes or team sports
• Learn relaxation techniques to deal with stress

Control body weight

Maintain healthy weight is one of the important part of healthy lifestyle. Overweight leads you to high blood pressure and type-2 diabetes. High blood pressure and type-2 diabetes increase risk of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

Tips to control weight
• Do cardiovascular exercises
• Eat healthy and low fat food
• Avoid junk and oily food
• Measure your weigh daily make a chart of your progress it will motivate you.

Eating a healthy diet

Foods that are good for your heart and body also be good for your brain. Eat foods that are rich in fiber, nutrition’s and vitamins. Make sure you are not adding food high in saturated fat, sugar and salt, this will increase your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, becoming overweight or obese, and type 2 diabetes.

Tips to eat healthy
• Eat a variety of foods, including fruits and vegetables
• Reduce your intake of saturated fats
• Choose unsaturated fats such as olive, canola, sunflower and safflower oils
• Consider including foods rich in omega-3 fats in your diet