In a new study conducted at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, researchers have found that the development of dementia late in life is linked to abnormal levels of dozens of proteins up to five years earlier. This discovery, as these proteins were not known to be linked to dementia, points to the potential of developing prevention therapies.
Published in the journal Nature Aging, the researchers analyzed more than 4,800 blood samples and found 38 proteins at abnormal levels significantly associated with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s in the five years since the collection of the blood sample. Their research is also exploring whether specific protein levels are linked to vascular disease in the brain heart and kidney.
Another recently published study points to poor sleep being a major risk factor at developing dementia. The research revealed that having less than five hours of sleep a night had double the risk of developing dementia compared to having seven to eight hours of sleep nightly.
Adding getting a good night’s sleep to your wellness and longevity routine? Get expert advice on improving the quality of your sleep here (did you know good sleep can be harder to achieve after the age of 50?). You can even make small changes to your diet to include more snooze-boosting foods.
