Mental decline hits 45 year-olds

Research has shown that Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease are age-related illnesses, and the risk increases as people age. But what many people do not realize is that the risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia does not simply appear at the age of 70 or 80 during the rest of retirement living; rather, it starts to rise as people enter their 40s.

USA Today recently published an article sharing recent research which showed that even by the age of 45, comprehension and memory can start to decline.

“We were able to show robust cognitive decline even in individuals aged 45 to 49 years,” said Archana Singh-Manoux, research director at Paul-Brousse Hospital and author of the recent study, which appeared in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers studied participants from the ages of 45 to 49, as well as from the ages of 65 to 70. Among genders, they discovered that between 45 and 49, women’s cognitive abilities declined slightly faster than men’s, but between the ages of 65 and 70, men’s cognitive abilities declined much faster than women’s.

Singh-Manoux told the newspaper that people should not be frightened of the data; rather, they can help slow down their mental decline by adopting a healthy lifestyle, both physical and mental.