Brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, are closely connected to heart health. They are affected by everyday actions and rank among the nation’s leading causes of death.
That’s the portrait of brain health that emerges from the American Heart Association’s “Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2022 Update” published Wednesday in the journal Circulation. It’s the first time the annual report has dedicated a chapter to brain health.
“What we’re trying to do is summarize not only, ‘How common is this, and is it getting more common?’ but also, ‘Why does it happen? And how is it related to other aspects of our health?'” said epidemiologist Evan Thacker, an…