SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — The same lifestyle choices that reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer also can reduce your risk of cognitive decline. Bryan Woodruff, M.D., a cognitive neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, explains the brain-body connection, lifestyle changes to foster brain health and why work to make earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias is important.
“What’s good for your overall health is good for your brain too,” Dr. Woodruff says.
You may have heard that Alzheimer’s disease is caused, in part, by the buildup of beta-amyloid plaques and twisted tau proteins in the brain. While true, other brain changes also are likely involved, Dr. Woodruff says.
“When scientists look at the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease after they’ve died, they find more than just plaques and tangles,” he adds.
They often find a buildup of fats, cholesterol and other substances in the vessels that supply blood to the brain. They also discover evidence of microscopic strokes — also called microinfarctions.
Unlike major strokes with noticeable symptoms such as facial drooping, physical numbness, a severe headache and trouble speaking, microscopic strokes are silent. As more occur, they can starve brain tissue of oxygen and nutrition. If enough microvascular changes occur, there may be symptoms like slowed thinking and trouble concentating.
“Your brain, as with every other organ in your body, depends on your cardiovascular system,” Dr. Woodruff says: This is why it’s so important to care for your heart and blood vessels.
Thanks to this connection, what benefits your heart also protects your brain
To get these benefits:
“Cognitive reserve doesn’t mean you’re immune,” Dr. Woodruff says. “But it buys you some cushion against a neurodegenerative problem.”
Dr. Woodruff is among Mayo Clinic researchers working to make earlier diagnosis of dementia and its precursor mild cognitive impairment possible, to allow for earlier treatment. This will be essential if therapeutic advances eventually make it possible to slow or even halt progression, he says.
It is never too late to make lifestyle changes to protect and improve brain health, he adds: “I tell all my patients, regardless of the severity of their cognitive decline, to take care of their overall health.’
For more information about brain health, visit Mayo Clinic Press and the Mayo Clinic News Network.