Dementia prevention must start before your golden years.
Cognitive decline is most often associated with old age.
However, family history also plays a role.
After all, you "can't fool the gene pool!"
Although the symptoms may become more pronounced at this stage, the development of dementia generally begins decades before its noticeable onset.
For those who want to minimize their risk of dementia in their retirement years, attention must be given to dementia prevention in their 40s and 50s.
By proactively addressing risk factors for cognitive decline, you can positively impact your future brain health.
Exercise is one midlife habit correlated with dementia prevention.
The brain is not stagnant.
Even before you were born, your brain has been growing and changing.
What happens to your brain throughout your lifespan will impact its future functioning.
Inflammation, minor injuries, and reduced blood flow can alter your brain and lead to cognitive impairment and memory issues.
When a dementia diagnosis is given, the condition will already have been developing for decades.
Yikes!
Various factors present in midlife have been correlated with a greater risk of dementia development.
Common culprits include diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and obesity.
Although this may seem disheartening, specific actions are correlated with dementia prevention.
What are they?
A balanced diet, mental engagement, and regular physical activity support brain health.
Research has even connected mental stimulation and social engagement with sustained cognitive acuity.
You can support your long-term health and independence by prioritizing volunteering, hobbies, and community groups in middle age.
Health habits require daily choices.
You cannot do something once and expect it to make a difference.
Regular aerobic exercise in your routine can stimulate the growth of new brain cells and improve blood flow.
What you eat is also essential.
A Mediterranean diet of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and healthy fats supports brain health.
If you have health conditions like sleep apnea, midlife hypertension, and unmanaged stress, you will have a greater risk of dementia development.
By scheduling regular checkups and treating your conditions, you can minimize damage to your brain.
Another factor in dementia prevention is mental health services.
Chronic stress and depression are both connected to cognitive decline.
You can build emotional and mental resilience by incorporating mindfulness practices, therapy, and support systems into your life.
Although taking steps in middle age to minimize your risk of developing dementia is essential, it is also necessary to prepare for future cognitive decline and incapacity.
Estate planning allows you to arrange legal protections for your financial and medical decisions.
By creating a general durable power of attorney and an advance health care directive, you can designate a trusted individual (and successors) to make decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated.
If you fail to have these documents in place, your loved ones would need to petition the courts for a conservatorship (financial matters) and a guardianship (personal and medical decisions) if you were to suffer from future cognitive decline.
Seeking a "guardianship and conservatorship" in your local probate courts is costly in both time and money, plus it exposes your personal and financial life to the public record.
By setting up a revocable living trust (RLT), you can better protect your assets and arrange for their management if you lose capacity.
With an RLT, you can maintain control of trust assets as a trustee until you lack the mental acuity to do so.
Once you lose capacity, the successor trustee can manage assets according to the terms of the trust.
Working with an experienced estate planning attorney allows you to be prepared if cognitive decline cannot be entirely prevented.
Dementia prevention is not about simply avoiding illness.
Taking steps to live healthier allows you to invest in your family and relationships.
It also allows you to maintain independence and delay the need for caregiving.
Unfortunately, even healthy lifestyles cannot guarantee mental acuity forever.
As the body ages, you may still face cognitive decline.
It is essential to have your estate planning documents in place before this time.
If you need to create an estate plan to prepare for possible incapacity, request a consultation with Harvest Law KC in Overland Park.
Making intentional changes to support a healthy lifestyle in your 40s and 50s can reduce your risk of developing dementia.
Exercise, social connection, diet, and stress management impact brain health.
Because certain medical conditions have been connected to a greater risk of cognitive decline, you should work with your doctor to treat and manage these conditions.
Although healthy lifestyle choices can support brain health, incapacity may still be a possibility in your future.
Having estate planning documents to provide direction and support during incapacity can give you and your loved ones peace of mind.
This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. You should contact an attorney for advice concerning any particular issue or problem. Nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship between Harvest Law KC and the reader.
Reference: The Wall Street Journal (March 26, 2025) "To Prevent Dementia, Start Now—Even in Your 40s"
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