Predict Dementia a DECADE Early?!
Wouldn’t it be great if there was an early warning sign for dementia?
A signal that could alert you years before any troubling symptoms developed?
Well, it turns out there is.
Incredibly, scientists have uncovered something that can alert you 12 full years before a dementia diagnosis.
Researchers studied over 8,000 healthy people for years and500 ended up developing dementia.
At the beginning of the study, participants took a visual sensitivity test evaluating their ability to respond to and process visual stimuli.
They were asked to press a button as soon as they saw a triangle forming on a screen.
The researchers discovered that the people who later developed dementia took longer to see the triangle forming on the screen than those who remained healthy.
This could be because the amyloid plaques linked to dementia may first affect the areas of the brain associated with vision.
And they appear to affect your vision long before memory, which could make this one of the earliest warning signs of dementia.
More research is needed to understand this relationship fully. However, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a link between dementia and vision issues.
Earlier studies found that discerning colors (especially blue versus green), the ability to see clear outlines of objects, and controlling eye movements can also be affected by Alzheimer’s.
This means having your vision tested could soon be one of the best and earliest ways to test for your risk of dementia.
In the meantime, there’s some evidence that activities such as reading or brain games that encourage you to use quick and deliberate eye movements could improve memory and reduce dementia risk.
You’ll find some free brain games at brainHQ.com that can benefit your brain health and reduce your risk of memory loss.
P.S. Dodge dementia with this HEART health “quiz.”
View Sources
Begde A, Wilcockson T, Brayne C, Hogervorst E. Visual processing speed and its association with future dementia development in a population-based prospective cohort: EPIC-Norfolk. Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 29;14(1):5016. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-55637-x. PMID: 38424122; PMCID: PMC10904745.
