What Are the Preventable Dementia Risk Factors?

When you are taking care of your elderly loved one, you may try to help them manage their weight, so they don’t become overweight or obese. You and their home care providers might remind them to take their daily vitamins to stay healthier. However, you may also want to help your elderly loved one prevent bigger diseases, as well, such as dementia.

If this is the case, there are some preventable dementia risk factors that you should know about. If your elderly loved one can make the best decisions in these areas, it could significantly lower their risk of getting dementia.

Doing More Physical Activity

Research shows that one of the things that can be done to prevent dementia is physical activity. You and the home care providers should be helping your loved one to achieve a physical activity goal of 5 days each week at 30 minutes every time. This can help to keep your elderly loved one’s brain, heart, and entire body healthier. There are many ways your elderly loved one can achieve this goal. They can do it through walking, doing planks, jumping jacks, swimming, and by doing other physical activities.

Not Smoking or Drinking

It is also important that your elderly loved one doesn’t smoke or drink. These two things can greatly increase their risk of dementia. This is because they restrict blood vessels in the brain and body, sometimes causing irreversible damage. If your elderly loved one currently smokes or drinks, you should have them talk to their doctor for more advice on how to quit. Then, you and the home care providers can help them from there.

Eat Healthy and Have a Healthy Weight

Research also shows that people who eat healthier throughout their life have a lower risk of getting dementia. Obesity also contributes to dementia. Eating healthier and doing physical activity helps to keep one’s weight under control. As you can see, all of these tips somewhat connect together to help your elderly loved one prevent dementia.

Staying Mentally Active

It is also important that your elderly loved one is doing activities that help to keep their mind active. If someone is just sitting around all day not doing much, their brain is not going to be working much. This can contribute to dementia. However, if your elderly loved one does puzzles, word games, and spends time with others, they can keep their brain active.

These are some of the preventable dementia risk factors that you and your elderly loved one need to know about. If you and home care providers can help your loved one in these areas, you can help to reduce their risk of getting dementia.

Source: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/preventing-alzheimers-disease-what-do-we-know

If you or an aging loved-one is considering Home Care Services in Milledgeville GA please contact the caring staff at Angels of Mercy Private Homecare Services, Inc. today at 478-745-5111.

Zandrea Durham