- Traumatic head injury
- Potentially increases risk: getting more viral infections (getting the common cold very often).
- Depression
- Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease
- Born to older parents
- Smoking.
- Family history of dementia
- Increased homocysteine levels (B vitamins, hypothyroidism, smoking, excess alcohol, aging)
- Having the APOE e4 allele (which can be mitigated through diet).
Then, more recent discoveries point to the roles of:
- Sleep: detoxifies our brain.
- Exercise: detoxifies the brain and stimulates neuronal growth.
- Cribiform plate ossification through aging: somehow prevents detoxification of substances in the brain.
- Bacteria that causes gingivitis: found to get to the brain, promote inflammation, and its increased presence is found among biopsied brains for thoss who had Alzheimer's.
- Candida albicans, as this paper describes.
Supplements being studied to somehow benefit Alzheimer's:
- Curcumin: supplements like Longvida potentially help, but at doses much higher than those listed on supplement bottles. Other forms are also being investigated.
- Magnesium threonate: gets more magnesium into the brain. Some MDs testify of what they did for their Alzheimer's patients. Still being studied.
Things that probably don't help:
- Donepezil: still being given to patients, but data now suggests it's not very useful.
That's all I can recall from memory. Very interesting disease.