My Journey With Health And Fitness – Reducing Risks

I haven’t made it to the gym for the past few days. I’m finding this cold is really challenging first thing in the morning and I just don’t have the energy. Having said that, I got at least 2 hours walking in both days. I think I am just going to concede that tomorrow I must as well just sleep in a little and focus on doing a walk.

Today was my day for the caregivers’ support group and there was a great article in our daily paper. It was about 15 science based ways to reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s. I thought I would review them all and see how well I might be doing so here it goes;

1. Try a plant based diet – ok, not sure this is ever actually going to happen .
2. Exercise regularly – I so nail that one.
3. Get vaccinated – (apparently the vaccines may tamp down the immune system’s response to amyloid plaque) this one is also a no brainer for me.
4. Take a daily multivitamin – this one is easy and I do this pretty much every day.
5. Avoid air pollution – since I live in a fairly urban area I am not really sure how to do this one. I’m hoping all my walks down by the ocean help with this.
6. Protect against traumatic brain injury – I kind of wondered about this one when I first read it but then found they were talking about taking precautions such wearing a seatbelt when in a vehicle and wearing a helmet when riding a motorcycle, bicycle, skateboard, scooter and when skiing. Ok, I’m good with that one as well.
7. Save your hearing – this refers to protecting your hearing from loud noises with earplugs, sound-blocking headphones or earmuffs which I pretty much do but I don’t think my cute, fluffy earmuffs are really that effective.
8. Maintain social connections – this one was interesting as research suggests that feeling lonely makes you more likely to develop dementia. I am pretty sure I am ok with that one as I have a pretty strong social network and well, I have pets.
9. Try to reduce feelings of loneliness – I guess this goes with the above but I can honestly say at this point in my life between family, work and volunteering I couldn’t tell you the last time I felt lonely.
10. Monitor blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol – check, check and check. While I monitor my BP regularly, my BG is checked every 6 months and my cholesterol is done annually.
11. Sleep well – oh, oh, this one might be a complete failure. Apparently insomnia and daytime sleepiness can be associated with a greater risk of Alzheimer’s.
12. Reduce alcohol intake – I am definitely working on this one but admit it is a work in progress. The real test is going to be how many dry days I can pull off during my upcoming 10 week trip to Mexico.
13. Stop smoking – yep, that’s been covered for quite a while.
14. Avoid sleep medications – I did try some for a while but they didn’t do much in terms of increasing my sleep, they only gave me super, vivid dreams that scared me.
15. Do crossword puzzles – I used to do the one in the paper pretty much every day but I have switched to doing 7 Little Words and Sudoku so I will say this box is checked as well.

I know that even if you did everything on this list it would be no way be a guarantee that you did not develop any form of dementia. It does how ever give me some hope that based on my current lifestyle I may have reduced the risk.