Professor welcomes WHO advice on dementia prevention, including increased physical activity

A Cork professor has welcomed updated guidelines from the WHO which highlight that up to 45% of dementia risk can be prevented or delayed, citing modifiable risk factors such as tobacco and air pollution.

Suzanne Timmons, from the centre for gerontology and rehabilitation at University College Cork, told The Echo that the WHO guidelines “focus people’s minds on dementia prevention, because there are a lot of things that people can do to reduce their risk”.

The new guidelines aim to promote early awareness, cognitive training, and integrated health services to reduce the impact of dementia.

Updated advice

The updated advice reflects significant growth in the evidence base since the WHO first issued recommendations on dementia risk reduction in 2019.

The guidelines provide recommendations on addressing unhealthy behaviours, managing medical conditions, and reducing exposure to environmental factors that may contribute to cognitive decline and dementia.

They also recommend several healthy behaviours and lifestyle interventions to reduce dementia risk, including cognitive training and cognitive stimulation, along with engagement in social activities for adults who have normal cognition or are experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

The updated advice includes interventions that can reduce the risk of dementia, including increasing physical activity, stopping tobacco use, reducing alcohol consumption, adopting a healthy diet, and a new recommendation to reduce exposure to air pollution.

Ms Timmons argues that among the strongest evidence for reducing dementia mentioned in the WHO guidelines is in relation to physical activity.

“It is proven that increasing your physical activity will reduce your risk of dementia. Everybody should be increasing their physical activity,” she said.

“The best exercise is the exercise that you can build into your life.

“Not smoking is another strong recommendation if people want to reduce their risk of dementia.

“Again, that is risk-free, it saves you money, there is no risk involved, and you can only benefit from it.”

Dementia is a condition caused by brain diseases, and impacts memory, thinking, and the ability to function.

More than 57m people live with dementia worldwide, with almost 10m people getting diagnosed every year.