Newswise — MINNEAPOLIS – You can modify the risk factors that a new study has found may lead to the steepest declines in thinking skills in middle age. The study is published in the July 15, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. At the same time, the risk factors that were not associated with cognitive decline might surprise you.
“Cardiovascular risk factors, especially high blood pressure and diabetes, become more common in midlife. We found those two risk factors, as well as smoking, are associated with higher odds of having accelerated cognitive decline, even over just a short span of five years,” said study author Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “In other words, people with these risk factors had a greater chance of…
