There is no cure for dementia. However, about 1/3 of dementia can be prevented through lifestyle changes like healthy diet, moderate exercise, reducing alcohol, no smoking, and managing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. But, on the first place, how do you know that you are at risk of developing dementia (if you don’t have genetic predisposition to it)?

A recent Canadian study found a solution. It proposes an online assessment to test the health of the brain people above 55 years old and highlight life(style) aspects that can reduce their risk of developing dementia in the next 5 years. This online assessment the researchers called the dementia risk calculator (or to be more specific, Dementia Population Risk Tool (DemPoRT)). It was designed based on the information from 75.460 participants. The online assessment doesn’t require any blood tests and can be filled easily in based on the information about you and your lifestyle.

The dementia risk calculator includes the following aspects about you and your lifestyle:

age; smoking status and lifetime exposure; alcohol consumption; physical activity; stress; diet; sense of belonging; ethnicity; immigration status; socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood; education; activities where assistance is needed; marital status; number of languages spoken; health conditions.

Researchers believe that the proposed assessment provides people with clues about where they need to pay attention in their lifestyle to reduce the risk of dementia.

The dementia calculator is added to existing calculators on the website Project Big Life, where you can estimate your own life expectancy based on habits and lifestyle choices.

Curious? HERE is the source