Health, neurologist Sorbi: “Correct lifestyles reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s”

“Reducing the risk of having cognitive decline as we age, or even developing a serious disease like Alzheimer’s, is possible. Just follow the 12 recommendations listed by the World Health Organization on lifestyles that we should all follow.” This is what Sandro Sorbi, past president of the Italian Alzheimer’s Research Association and director of Neurology I at the Careggi University Hospital in Florence, told Adnkronos Salute, during the press conference for the tenth anniversary of the foundation of Airalzh Onlus, at the Ministry of Health in Rome.

“First of all, you need to pay attention to your diet and the WHO refers to our Mediterranean diet – Sorbi emphasizes – If you can’t follow the Mediterranean diet, there is a balanced diet as an alternative. Another very important aspect is moderate daily physical activity which improves responses to memory tests and reduces the risk of cognitive decline. About half an hour a day of brisk walking, or an activity in the garden and twice a week an hour of more intense physical activity, are not impossible, we can all do these things”. Other recommendations: “Controlling blood pressure and blood sugar, because it is well documented that if not well treated, diabetes carries a greater risk of developing cognitive problems” or even developing Alzheimer’s.

For Sorbi “the aim of research is to move towards a tomorrow without Alzheimer’s. Genetic treatments represent a very important line of research. Then there is some positive data: epidemiological studies reveal that in the last 10 years in Europe and also in the United States there is a lower risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in general than in the last 10 years of the twentieth century. So this is a positive aspect that tells us that, independently of having found a treatment mechanism, what we are probably doing in terms of paying attention to lifestyle is already changing the risk of getting sick. So we must insist on this aspect. However, this is not the case all over the world. In Asian countries, in fact, there is an increase in the risk of dementia that contrasts with what we see in European and North American countries”.