Dementia prevention, sharing research for University College London

I had a lovely afternoon scribing at a public engagement event about dementia in London yesterday. The event was run by University College London, and was a sort of crossover between knowledge exchange and public health messaging with several dementia research groups there to share their findings with the public. 

The good news is: research that has been undertaken recently by Professor Gill Livingston has found that dementia is up to 45% preventable if you remove the following 14 risk factors:

Unfortunately, as we heard from participants, as we grow older and become physically infirm or lose sight or hearing this can also lead to social isolation, adding to the potential risk for dementia. Other things were a surprise, eg I wasn’t aware of the impact of air pollution and high LDL cholesterol as risk factors for dementia. (So more walks in the woods and healthy snacks for me then!)

 

Heads Up is out now!

Published by Quarto books and written by Dr Clara Doran. A book about the science of brain health, written in an open, accessible way, with plenty of illustrations to keep you reading!

I had a lot of fun coming up with responses to the text, and also learnt plenty along the way. Here are some pics of what’s inside: