NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If you're having trouble remembering
where you left your keys or recalling a word, mull over the number of times
and how many years you've continued unhealthy behaviors.
Previous research has linked declining thinking and memory skills with
unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, abstaining completely from alcohol, not
getting enough physical activity, and not eating enough fruits and
vegetables daily.
In the current study, Dr. Severine Sabia and colleagues found the more each
of the 5,123 adult participants reported these behaviors the greater their
"risk of cognitive deficit," Sabia told Reuters Health in an email.
Over a 17-year period, adult men and women who accumulated the most versus
the least number of unhealthy behaviors were nearly three times more likely
to show poor thinking skills, and about two times more likely to have
declining memory, Sabia and colleagues report in the American Journal of
Epidemiology.
Sabia, of Hopital Paul Brousse in Villejuif, France, and fellow researchers
surveyed health behaviors of civil service office workers in London, UK,
when the workers were 44 (early-midlife), 56 (midlife), and 61
(late-midlife) years old.
After allowing for the impact of age, gender, and social and economic
status, the investigators found current smokers more likely to show the
lowest memory, verbal, and math-related thinking and reasoning skills at
each survey.
The investigators noted similar findings among non-drinkers versus those who
had between 1 and 14 alcoholic drinks a week, and those who ate fewer versus
more than 2 servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
Men and women who reported lower levels of physical activity during midlife
and late-midlife also showed greater risk for cognitive deficit.
Considering the unhealthy behaviors assessed in the current study are
modifiable, Sabia's team calls for greater promotion of healthy lifestyles
to protect against later-life cognitive deficits.
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, August 15, 2009
