Lauren Sprague’s father had a stroke when she was in school. He died at 63, but, before he died, his dementia developed slowly. Lauren is worried the same may happen to her. “Is today the day that the same thing may happen to me that happened to my dad?” 

Lauren went to go see Dr. Jonathan Rosand. He said, “Time and again I would get the same question, ‘Doctor, what can I do to take good care of my brain so that I don’t end up like my mother, my brother, my father?’”

The doctor further said that it is possible to cut the risk of dementia by making adjustments to your daily habits. 

This can include what you eat, and the amount of physical activity you get everyday. A new tool can predict the probability of developing a decline in mental functioning. 

“This tool will allow patients to determine their likelihood of developing cognitive impairment in the near future when trying to decide if they should consider therapy… This will be necessary if and when therapists become approved for treating cognitively normal persons who are amy-loid-positive,” Ronald Peterson said.

A group of experts have concluded that 40-45% of cases could have been prevented or delayed if they had considered these few risk factors among many others:

• Being physically inactive
• Smoking
• Excessive alcohol drinking
• Air pollution
• Traumatic brain injury 
• Hearing loss
• Untreated vision loss
• High blood pressure

“The key message we want to convey with the Brain Care Score is, it is you. It is each of our viewers. It is everyone who wants to take a step forward. It’s up to you and you’re in control,” Rosando says.