How to Reduce the Risk of Dementia Through Long Term Relationships

Studies have shown that people who spend more time with the same persons throughout their lives have a lowered risk of dementia as they get older.[1] There are various ways you can incorporate the insights of these studies into your life. You can even make a commitment to avoid from 2 to 3 times greater risk of developing dementia. Although being true to yourself in commitment to your own long-term relationships is easier said than done -- it happens -- and this article shows how critical they are for mental sharpness in your golden years.

Steps

Be in a long-lasting relationship before middle age. While studies focused on marriage as a factor, having a long-term relationship in which you live together has the same effects.
Maintain your relationships ideally into old age. The company will help keep your mind sharp. Note that the marriage or relationship doesn't have to be perfect, or ideal.
Remarry if you lose your spouse. You may consider yourself blessed to be able to be in dating for a lasting relationship again, finding a potential loved-one to possibly remarry and being committed to this kind of long-lasting relationship.
Keep up the interactions in your long-term relationship with the daily challenges of marriage because that is what matters most to reduce the risk of dementia...
- This is based on the long term professional study reported July 3, 2009 and published in the British Medical Journal covering a large number persons studied at age 50 and again at age 70. [2]

Alzheimer’s is "not" as dependent on lifestyle choices such as being and staying married --
- and Alzheimer's involves a more complex set of factors involving genetics and environmental damage. [3]
The study indicates there is "a dramatic increase in risk of Alzheimer’s disease for widowed..." as compared to married in the study, this is not conclusive, but the matter of dementia is now shown by this study.marriage and dementia - British Medical Journal, July 3, 2009, bmj.org
Long lasting relationships also help couples to live longer and this is rather well known. See the studies reported in the following health, medical, and social science journals:
- Marital Status and Longevity in the United States Population [4]
- Marital Status and Mortality in the Elderly: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis[5]
- U.S. Mortality by Economic, Demographic, and Social Characteristics: the National Longitudinal Mortality Study[6]

In "any case" for long-life, avoid triglycerides (modified fats). Triglycerides tend to harden in the arteries going to the brain and heart, and may cause heart or cerebral (brain) strokes. Many people are unable to burn them.
- Note: To have continuing better mental health as a result -- one should take good care to not cook with or eat products made with the hydrogenated (partially hardened) oils or modified fats in the diet called triglycerides.

↑ http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/jul02_2/b2462 "The British Medical Journal" - Full text of the report on marriage and dementia at bmj.org

↑ http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/marriageonhealth/rb.htm#34 U.S. Health and Human Services

↑ Kaplan, Robert M. and Richard G. Kronick. "Marital Status and Longevity in the United States Population." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, vol. 60, 2006; pp. 760-765

↑ Manzoli, Lamberto, Paolo Villari, Giovanni M. Pirone, and Antonio Boccia. "Marital Status and Mortality in the Elderly: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Social Science & Medicine, vol. 64, 2007, pp. 77-94

↑ Sorlie, P.D., E. Backland, and J.B. Keller. "U.S. Mortality by Economic, Demographic, and Social Characteristics: the National Longitudinal Mortality Study." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 85, no. 7, 1995, pp. 949-956

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