Advice
5 New Year’s resolutions to help reduce your risk of dementia
Here are five things you can do to help lower your chances of developing dementia, with illustrations by multi-award winning cartoonist, the late Tony Husband.
Like many people, you may have made some resolutions for the New Year. Perhaps you’re determined to improve your health by doing more exercise or drinking less alcohol.
Making healthier choices can help reduce your risk of dementia. While some things that affect your risk of dementia can’t be changed, such as your age or genes, there are many things you can change.
Here are just five of the things you can do to help lower your risk of dementia. They relevant to everyone but are especially important if you’re in your 40s, 50s or 60s.
![Get more exercise cartoon](/sites/default/files/styles/image_auto_height_default/public/media/images/image/2020-01/tony_cartoon_4.jpg?itok=r1hfd64d)
1. Get moving
One of the best ways to reduce your risk of dementia is being physically active several times each week.
This helps to keep you healthy in so many ways, including looking after the blood vessels in your brain so they’re able to keep supplying it with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to work properly.
Physical activity is also good for your mental health and helps you to sleep better.
Try to do a combination of activities you’ll enjoy, as you’re more likely to stick to them, such as:
- activities that get you moving and breathing faster, such as brisk walking, swimming, pilates, or riding a bike
- activities that strengthen your muscles, such as digging and shovelling in the garden, dancing, climbing stairs, or lifting weights.
Older people who are at risk of falling may find exercises that strengthen their legs help them to stay steadier on their feet. It can also help to reduce joint pain.
![Watch your diet](/sites/default/files/styles/image_auto_height_default/public/media/images/image/2020-01/Tony_cartoon_edit%201.jpg?itok=HYQk96S8)
2. Eat well
A healthy, balanced diet is likely to reduce your risk of dementia, as well as several other health conditions including cancer, diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
Top tips for healthy eating include eating:
- wholegrain foods in most meals, such as wholemeal bread, rice and pasta
- lots of fruits, vegetables, pulses (beans, peas, lentils), nuts and seeds
- at least two portions of fish each week, including an oily fish such as salmon, sardines or mackerel.
- lower-fat dairy foods
- less red or processed meat
- only having sugary foods, such as biscuits, cakes or chocolate, as occasional treats
- less salt – no more than about a teaspoon (6g) each day.
The Eatwell Guide from the NHS shows how much of what we eat overall should come from each food group to achieve a healthy, balanced diet.
3. Quit smoking and cut down on alcohol
If you smoke, you’re putting yourself at much higher risk of developing dementia later in life, as well as other conditions such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.
Drinking too much alcohol also increases your risk of developing dementia.
Aim to drink no more than 14 units per week, which is equivalent to about 7 pints of lower-strength beer or lager, and don’t drink more than 6 to 8 units at a time.
![Don't Smoke](/sites/default/files/styles/image_auto_height_default/public/media/images/image/2020-01/tony_cartoon_3.jpg?itok=N2m_VmP5)
4. Keep your mind active
Engaging in mental or social activities may help to build up your brain’s ability to cope with disease, relieve stress and improve your mood. Find an activity you enjoy, as you’re more likely to keep it up.
For example:
- any kind of adult education or learning
- arts and crafts (especially in groups)
- playing a musical instrument or singing
- volunteering
- reading books or magazines, or becoming a member of a book club
- doing brainteasers, such as puzzles, crosswords or quizzes
- playing card games or board games
- learning a new language
- creative writing – such as stories, articles or blogs – or just keeping a diary.
You might want to do some of these activities with friends or neighbours. Spending time with other people helps to keep your mind active.
![Look after your health cartoon](/sites/default/files/styles/image_auto_height_default/public/media/images/image/2020-01/Tony_cartoon_edit%202.jpg?itok=mCvFvwuO)
5. Look after your health
Taking control of your health will help reduce your risk of dementia. If you’re aged 40–74, start by getting your free NHS health check:
- In England, you’ll be invited to this by your GP every five years, unless you have a pre-existing health condition.
- In Wales, you can use the ‘Add to Your Life’ free online health and wellbeing check.
- In Northern Ireland, you can book a Well Check via Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke (NICHS).
It’s also important to protect your head from injuries by wearing protective headgear where there is a higher-than-normal risk of head injury – for example, riding a bike, working on a building site, horse-riding, playing cricket -– and definitely if skateboarding!
Get support from your GP if you are having trouble with hearing loss, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, or if you think you may be depressed. Each of these has been shown to increase risk of dementia.
Thank you to the late cartoonist Tony Husband for providing his wonderful illustrations.
This article was first published in 2018 and last updated in January 2023.
Dementia: Reducing your risk
There are many websites and apps that can help you with physical and mental exercise, giving up smoking and eating healthily. Download our booklet on dementia and how to reduce your risk of developing it, or order a free copy in the post.
Judiyh
saysWe need better treatment and sooner, not in another 5years,medically speaking
Christine Amos
saysMy name is Christine i’m 68yrs old next month and I think i’m going down the slope to Alzheimer’s. Tomorrow i’m having an assessment (one of many I suspect) to find out if i’m heading that way. I sincerely hope not as my own mother developed the illness and ended up not recognising her own daughter when visiting her in a home. I was about 48yrs old at the time, divorced, 3 children at school and falling apart.
When I went to visit her in the home she would say she didn’t know me and would walk away. Thanks Alzheimer’s.
Evans
saysMy wife went to keep fit, yoga, Egyptian dance classes as well as swimming every week. She ate lots of fish, fruit and vegetables and was not over weight. Her address book was filled with people she met up with for lunch days out. Smoking and excessive drinking have never been part of her life. She was a bright, bubbly. positive lady who had just retired as a health visitor and was looking forward to doing more world travel, her passion, when she was diagnosed........
Stephen L. Campbell
saysSo sorry to hear that. Guess for any of us nothing is guaranteed. I think that we should all aspire to lead full and active lives and to take every opportunity that comes our way. Sadly, I have found in my own life, for some of the brightest, gifted and most generous people around, their light goes out long before time.
Linda Fletcher
saysExactly the same for my mum. She was a headmistress, never smoked, hardly drank, a healthy weight and exercised daily, walking, swimming, gym and Tai Chi. She was only 67 when diagnosed with Alzheimers. She is now aged 76 and in a Care Home. She cannot hold a conversation, open an envelope or brush her own teeth, amongst many other things! I find it all so cruel, she is physically extremely fit but her mind is shot. She is so helpless now I could cry ( and I do, often). Visitors to the home think she is also a visitor, she looks so young. She has happy moments but not really any quality of life. She just exists, sometimes angry because I think she is scared. The carers are fantastic with her at the home but she really has no life at all. Her light went out long ago and I am so sad for her. She could go on for years.
Vicky H Wheeldon Vick
saysGood afternoon my name is Vicky H Wheeldon. I have a aunty Anne has dementia she can't remember me any more. Her couisns are Gaye and Frank. ..if I wrote to her car she remember me that I have written to her or not
Julia
saysI am a 75 year old carer of a husband with vascular dementia. My mother died of Alzheimer's aged 92 so dementia is a big concern for me.
Some nights my husband will have me up and down all night for one thing and another leaving me with maybe 3-5 hours of fragmented sleep. Sometimes he settles fairly well and I get 6-7 hours on and off. When he is in hospital for physical problems I get 8-9 or even more hours of uninterrupted bliss.
You could almost plot a graph with a positive correlation between the hours of sleep I have had and my cognitive ability. At 3 hours I couldn't tell you where I put the kettle. Let alone what I wanted it for. Simple day to day arithmetic goes out the window. Studying is a nightmare. On a good day I will have trouble naming things but on a "3 hour day" I scarcely remember names of anything. Oh yes sleep has to be relevant!
Mrs Mary Morris
saysJulie , you are so right . I could see myself in all you said . Sadly due to my blood pressure soaring and out of the blue an offer of the only Dementia Unit I was happy for him to go to , came the very next day . He has now been there for 8 weeks . The change in me , after 15 years of caring , has been amazing . I now sleep an undisturbed 7-8 hours and would usually have been exhausted by lunchtime . Now I have energy , have been able to , at last , start researching my Fathers part in WW11. I can watch programmes on gardening , cookery , history and comedy which my husband refused to watch. I do still forget words but for years there was very little speech in our home as he could not initiate speech . So I tend to speak very fast , I suppose because he hated me talking to anyone else. I am trying to slow down but it is difficult after years of having to do everything. The most amazing thing is not clock watching - always having to do shopping etc in such a small amount of time , while a Carer took over for a short time. It is so strange to know I can do anything .
I miss my husband terribly after 54 years together and it has been a type of grieving . I feel cross that allowing my husband to go into a Unit means I will grieve for him twice. Dementia is so cruel . Keep your chin up - you are amazing but try to have respite to allow yourself to recharge . I always said he would never go into a home but the toll of caring took a toll on my health . I am so relieved he is safe now in case I went first .
Lynne Cave
saysIs it not possible for the Doctor to prescribe a sleeping tablet for your husband to give you the sleep you most definitely need. I am desperate for you and pray you will continue to cope.
Bernice Young
saysI have just read the book called 'Why we sleep' by Matthew Walker who stresses the importance of sleep, particularly NREM sleep when Gamma Rays induce glial cells to clear away Amaloid toxins. He suggests that we don't stress the importance of having 7 - 8 hours sleep a night, to allow for NREM sleep to occur. People who's lifestyles don't encourage 8 hours sleep (at night) may be at higher risk of Alzheimers. So should you not be stressing the importance of, sleep of sufficient quantity and quality to reduce this risk.
Stephen L. Campbell
saysHi, I would think that Gamma Rays are not part of a human sleep cycle:
SOURCES OF GAMMA RAYS. Gamma rays have the smallest wavelengths and the most energy of any wave in the electromagnetic spectrum. They are produced by the hottest and most energetic objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and pulsars, supernova explosions, and regions around black holes.
Gamma Rays | Science Mission Directorate
https://science.nasa.gov/ems/12_gammarays
Also, a separate point - on so many dimensions humans vary, sleep included. I myself tend towards a 7hr natural sleep when all other conditions are right (temperature; regular sleep time/pattern; good hydration; relaxed before bed; neither hungry or 'over full'; room is dark and quiet.) Therefore, may be the point is to get the length of sleep that is right for us as individuals. Also, I would be interested to know of any research around having naps during the day? A good night's sleep cannot be guaranteed and so very occasionally I have a 'power nap' for about 10mins in the day. I read somewhere that our sleep gets deeper from first falling asleep, but then gets lighter again at about 10mins, and again at about 50mins. I would therefore set an alarm to awake (hopefully more refreshed than before) after 10mins. Are the timings here anybody else has come across?
VALERIE KETURAH BROWN Organising the Shropshire and Telford
saysWhen riding make sure you wear a helmet