Can You Delay Dementia?

Research from studies in the US suggest that people in their 50s making changes to their lifestyle, may increase their chances of being dementia free by 13 years. Is it that simple?

A report in New Scientist (15 August 2026) cites a study in the US by Josef Coresh at New York University. In essence, the study of about 12,000 Americans typically over a 26 year period concluded that chances of getting dementia are much lower for those people that had low blood pressure, do not smoke and do not have diabetes or to put it another way, concluded that people that smoke, have diabetes and high blood pressure are 2.7 times more likely to suffer from dementia.

One of the problems that we all tend to have when it comes to your financial planning is a general inability to grasp the potential health changes we may experience as a we age. I may draw up your plan until you are 100, but it is likely that for most of us there will be a serious decline in health at some point. Typically this affects mobility and mental capacity, which impacts a loss of independence and is another good reason for everyone to sort out their own Power of Attorney.

Coresh, who set up and runs The Optimal Aging Institute, established in 2023, is designed to connect research from around the world in this field. There are key factors that changes in lifestyle can help improve on the “normal” (typical) experience of decline in older adults. The sooner this is started the better, but actually it seems fairly dramatic differences can be achieved whenever you begin to live more healthily.

There are some detractors to the research, its US focus (where food is heavily processed with lots of added “sugar”) and a lack of connection with hearing loss and isolation, as pointed out by Richard Siow at Kings College London, who is Director of ARK – Ageing Research at Kings.

Many of you are medics and I am significantly “outside of my lane” but I believe it accurate to say that high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes all damage blood vessels, which when inflamed damage neurons which normally help the brain to function well, particularly for memory and learning.

Whatever the research suggests, this is one area where some changes in our lifestyle, something that is within our control, but not without significant effort (and battle) may provide a considerable advantage in later life. I’m really glad that organisations like Kings and NYU exist to fund research into this. We have an ageing population (globally, not simply here) and need all the assistance we can get to avoid a massive pressure on care in later life (and therefore increased cost) which as many of you will know can be extremely expensive and a topic that recent Governments have continued to ignore.

Whilst many of you will have had experience of dementia with family members, there is a rather good film starring Anthony Hopkins (still working at 88) called The Father. Here is the trailer.

The Father (2021), Directed by Florian Zeller, Starring Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Olivia Williams, Mark Gattis and Rufus Sewell. Produced by Film4

References:

Josef Coresh PHD: https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/josef-coresh

The Optimal Aging Institute: https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/optimal-aging/   

Richard Siow at Kings: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/richard-siow

ARK: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/ageing-research-at-kings-ark

What we do: https://www.solomonsifa.co.uk/what-we-do/

The Father (2021). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10272386/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_2_cdt_t_14