Alzheimer's Archive

Regular meditation can lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve concentration. Practicing a simple 10-minute mantra-based meditation and observing mindfulness during everyday moments are ideal ways begin a meditation practice.

Most adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night, but more than one-third consistently sleep fewer than seven. Reasons for poor sleep include pregnancy, menopausal night sweats, medication use, sleep disorders, and various illnesses. Sleep deprivation can raise the risks for such conditions as diabetes, certain cancers, obesity, dementia, depression, and heart disease. To promote sounder sleep, people can keep consistent sleep-wake schedules, reduce intake of caffeine and alcohol, and avoid using electronic devices before bed.

COVID-19 can damage the brain in many ways. Initially, it can cause brain inflammation that causes confusion, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems. COVID also can cause new psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety. It can even cause people to see and hear things that aren't there and to believe things that aren't true. COVID often damages the brain's autonomic nervous system, leading to abnormalities in heart rate and blood pressure. Additionally, the virus that causes COVID can infect and injure the lining of blood vessels and make blood clot more easily, which can lead to strokes and heart attacks.

More than a million nerve connections are made in the brain in the first few years of life. Babies and young children thrive with responsive caregiving, such as engaging a child in playful games that change as they grow.

One in 10 Americans ages 65 and older has dementia. The condition is likely to progress slowly, offering couples the opportunity to adopt coping strategies that can smooth their path. Early on, you can consider treatment that may temporarily improve memory and thinking problems. People whose partners have been diagnosed should get informed about dementia, attend doctor's visits, take over certain tasks, keep routines, update legal documents, and join a support group.

Older adults can still lower their risk for dementia by taking medication to decrease their high blood pressure, according to a recent study.

Keeping the brain as healthy as possible might help slow the fuzzy thinking that develops with age-related brain changes. The best way to stay sharp is by living a healthy lifestyle: exercising regularly (at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking), sleeping for seven to nine hours per night, eating a Mediterranean-style diet, managing stress, socializing, and learning new things. Doing crossword puzzles may also help sharpen cognition. So might treatment for underlying health conditions, such as depression or thyroid disease.

Aerobic and muscle-building exercises can trigger physiological changes that improve blood vessels and metabolism in ways that help prevent all the major risk factors that contribute to heart disease. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and unhealthy cholesterol levels. Exercise can also improve mental health problems such as depression and stress, which are common but underrecognized risks for heart disease.

People who take between 3,800 and 9,800 steps daily may reduce their risk for dementia, and walking at a brisk pace could offer even more protection, according to a 2022 study.

Sitting too much is bad for health. But there are ways to make time spent seated a little healthier. For example, people can keep their brains active by reading, writing, doing a hobby (such as knitting), or playing an instrument. And people can exercise while in a seated position. It's possible to do an aerobic workout that gets the heart and lungs pumping, such as a seated dance routine or calisthenics, as well as muscle-strengthening activities or stretching exercises.