Alzheimer’s in Women: Insights into Higher Prevalence and Prevention Strategies - Dr Poonam Santhosh

Two-thirds of people living with Alzheimer’s are women. By the age of 65, a woman's lifetime risk of Alzheimer's is projected to be 1 in 5.

• Women live longer than men. As people age, their likelihood of having dementia rises. One of the reasons is that there are more women than men is simply that there are elder women than older men living in our society. Alzheimer's disease is more likely to strike an older person.
• That is just not it, Generally the incidence of Alzheimer's is greater in women compared to other types of non-Alzheimer dementia
• Alzheimer's is disease where there is deposition of amyloid plaques in the brain. Women could have more of these amyloid plaque deposition,
• 4. Women have a stronger immune system, naturally, as a part of evolution to protect the foetus against infections. This may be the cause of increase in autoantibodies, which can cause more amyloid plaque depositions compared to men.

What can you do to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s if you are a woman?

• Increasing physical activity can delay the cognitive decline. Aerobic activity such as brisk walking, jogging, biking, swimming, or aerobic exercises for at least 30 minutes per day, five days per week.
• Engage in new, thought-provoking activities as well as sociable ones. Cognitively stimulating lifestyle can boost cognitive reserve, increase the regeneration of new nerve cells, thus delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s disease by up to five years. In a study done over 7 years, on 1903 subjects, those individuals with high levels of cognitive activity (top 10%) developed Alzheimer's at an average age of 93.6 years — five years later than those individuals with low levels of cognitive activity (bottom 10%), who developed the disease at an average of 88.6 years. Cognitively stimulating activities can include reading, writing letters, and playing games (like checkers or other board games, cards, puzzles, etc.), learning a new language people who engage in social activities, have a positive attitude to work and life, learning new things, maintain their cognitive abilities longer than those who are isolated, or have a negative attitude.

Adequate and refreshing Sleep

Researchers found that individuals who slept less than five hours a day were at double the risk to develop dementia, compared to those who slept six to eight hours per night. Sleep is important since it flushes away the beta amyloid plaques deposited during the day. Inadequate sleep means the brain does not have adequate time to flush away the amyloid plaques, and accumulation over the years can cause dementia.

A Mediterranean Diet

Research has shown that a Mediterranean diet with fish, and vegetables have shown benefit by delaying the onset of clinical signs of dementia. The most significant dietary component for reducing the risk of cognitive impairment was fish. Vegetables were second best. olive oil, avocados, fruits, nuts, beans, whole grains, and poultry were other beneficial foods.

Avoid harmful use of alcohol and smoking

Alcohol Use and smoking can tremendously increase the rate of cognitive decline. Alcohol and smoking can worsen Alzheimer’s as well as other types of dementia. The vascular system in the brain gets compromised, leading to lower blood and oxygen supply to the brain causing damage to nerve cells.  

Adequate control of hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol levels, uncontrolled hypertension, uncontrolled diabetes can damage the blood vessels in the brain contributing to worsening of the cognitive decline.

Maintain a Healthy weight

Obesity can also lead to chronic inflammation in the body, Inflammation in the brain is linked to dementia as it can activation of immune cells in the brain which lead to damage in the brain's nerve cells.