4 ms·

> Maintaining optimal midlife vascular health was associated with up to 12.6 additional dementia-free survival years, Stay on top of your cardiovascular health

> Maintaining optimal midlife vascular health was associated with up to 12.6 additional dementia-free survival years, Stay on top of your cardiovascular health. Even moderate diet and lifestyle changes can have a significant impact on the last decade of your life. These things compound over decades.

criddell 3mo ago
Being human, I think more about the number of dementia years than number of dementia-free years. Could having good dietary, sleep, and exercise habits result in living longer with dementia? I've hard about cognitive reserve and how healthy lifestyle choices can build that. But I never read about ways to minimize the number of years you have to live with dementia. I wish I could sign an order that would grant me a dignified death once I'm deemed no longer fit to make that decision.
- Aurornis 3mo ago
  You're looking at this from the wrong angle. The dementia risk and longevity have overlapping factors. Lifestyle choices correlated with shorter lifespan are also correlated with earlier dementia onset. They're not perfectly proportional, but getting earlier dementia and also living shorter is lose-lose. Technically there's an extreme version of this where someone's lifestyle is so bad that they're unlikely to live past 60, but the last 10-20 years of that life would not be fun.
  - criddell 2mo ago
    > getting earlier dementia and also living shorter is lose-lose That depends. I'd rather die at 70 after a year of dementia than live to 85 where the last five of those I have dementia. I want to minimize the number of years with dementia, not maximize the number of years without.
- jonfromsf 3mo ago
  This is indeed a problem. My mom had excellent cardiovascular health (she walked hours a day, ate a mostly vegetarian diet, etc). She got Alzheimers at 65 and is now 82. She's been completely gone as a person for the last decade, but her body hasn't died yet. It's tragic.

criddell 3mo ago

Being human, I think more about the number of dementia years than number of dementia-free years. Could having good dietary, sleep, and exercise habits result in living longer with dementia? I've hard about cognitive reserve and how healthy lifestyle choices can build that. But I never read about ways to minimize the number of years you have to live with dementia. I wish I could sign an order that would grant me a dignified death once I'm deemed no longer fit to make that decision.

Aurornis 3mo ago
You're looking at this from the wrong angle. The dementia risk and longevity have overlapping factors. Lifestyle choices correlated with shorter lifespan are also correlated with earlier dementia onset. They're not perfectly proportional, but getting earlier dementia and also living shorter is lose-lose. Technically there's an extreme version of this where someone's lifestyle is so bad that they're unlikely to live past 60, but the last 10-20 years of that life would not be fun.
- criddell 2mo ago
  > getting earlier dementia and also living shorter is lose-lose That depends. I'd rather die at 70 after a year of dementia than live to 85 where the last five of those I have dementia. I want to minimize the number of years with dementia, not maximize the number of years without.
jonfromsf 3mo ago
This is indeed a problem. My mom had excellent cardiovascular health (she walked hours a day, ate a mostly vegetarian diet, etc). She got Alzheimers at 65 and is now 82. She's been completely gone as a person for the last decade, but her body hasn't died yet. It's tragic.