Three simple changes in middle age could give you 13 more years without dementia, study suggests | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Three everyday habits could add over a decade to your brain's healthy years, scientists have suggested.

A new study suggests that keeping blood pressure in check, avoiding diabetes and not smoking between the ages of 45 and 65 could buy you an extra 13 years free of dementia.

The research, a decades-long study recently published in the journal Neurology, set out to measure how managing these risk factors in midlife affects long-term brain health.

High blood pressure, diabetes and smoking all have a well-established link with cognitive decline, but what's less clear is how much they influence dementia rates.

To assess this, researchers at New York University (NYU) monitored more than 12,000 people who were dementia-free at age 55. The participants were assessed for all three risk factors at the start of the study, then monitored for an average of 26 years to see if they went on to develop dementia.