A dementia expert has revealed four simple steps that could reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease progressing and even get your memory back.
Considered the most common type of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease involves parts of your brain that control thought, memory, and language.
Once you develop the brain condition, the first signs can also appear in these areas. Some of the early warning signs include:
- Forgetting things
- Having trouble participating in conversations
- Social withdrawal
- Mood changes
- Misplacing things
- Loss of hearing.
Fortunately, Robert Love, a neuroscientist who specialises in helping people prevent Alzheimer’s disease with science, took to his TikTok channel to advise what to do if you spot the warning signs.
In the video, he said: “If you have some of these early warning signs… first, I want you to know that it’s not too late.
“You can get started right away and that can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s progressing.
“You can stop the progression. You can even get your memory back, so that’s really good news.”
1. Exercise
The neuroscientist explained that exercise is “medicine for your brain”. He said: “Exercise gets fresh blood, fresh nutrients up into your brain. Exercise also helps to reduce depression, anxiety and improve sleep.”
2. Sleep
Love shared that improving your shut-eye is key as sleep not only helps you to make new memories but it also allows your brain to get a “wash”.
He said: “It’s called the glymphatic system, it actually cleanses out plaque and toxins from your brain at night. So getting very good sleep is very, very important.”
3. Avoid inflammatory foods
A healthy diet is another powerful weapon you can add to your arsenal of protection against cognitive decline, but what you avoid is just as important as what you include.
Love said: “You want to avoid foods that cause inflammation. These are the fried foods, these are the packed, processed foods, these are foods high in sugar.
“Instead, eat a lot of organic foods and vegetables and eat lots of healthy forms of protein.”
4. Improve your relationships
The last tip the neuroscientist offered is focusing on having good social connections. He explained that staying involved in your life makes you less likely to get dementia.
He added: “Having healthy relationships keeps you involved in your life, this improves your mood, this improves the quality of life.
“The people who are more engaged socially and have high-quality relationships and purpose in life are less likely to get Alzheimer’s disease.”
