Summary: A new study highlights that optimal brain health, which is important for maintaining cognitive function with age, is strongly linked to cardiovascular health. This study highlights the shared risk factors that dementia and cognitive function share with heart disease, suggesting that these conditions are largely preventable by controlling diet, exercise, cholesterol, blood glucose and blood pressure.
Guidelines such as the American Heart Association’s Life Essential 8 can significantly reduce the risk of developing dementia, with eight important actions to improve cardiovascular and brain health. Experts argue that by integrating these heart-healthy habits into daily life, they provide practical strategies to reduce the global burden of dementia.
Important Facts:
Shared Risk Factors: Dementia and heart disease share common modifiable risk factors such as diet, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Globally, dementia cases have increased by 160% since 1990, surpassing cardiovascular disease and adventure strategies.
Source: AHA
The average adult brain weighs only about 3 pounds, but it is one of the most complex and important organs of the human body.
Cognition decreases and our brains become more prone to illness as we age. Therefore, the prevalence of brain diseases, including dementia, is increasing as medical advances and other factors help the world’s population survive longer.
But keeping our brains healthy may be easier than people notice with helpful guidance from the American Heart Association.
Optimal brain health includes the functional ability to perform all the diverse tasks that the brain is responsible for, including thoughts, emotionality, and more.
Many modifiable risk factors for cognitive loss, such as unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyles, develop in childhood and adolescence. As we age, we will experience less recognizing abilities, problem solving, thoughts and communication.
“We know that many of the same health risk factors that cause heart disease and stroke also contribute to lower overall brain health,” says Mitchell SV Elkind, MD, MS, FAHA, former president of the Volunteer American Heart Association and is now Chief Clinical Science Officer.
“Like heart disease and stroke, most brain diseases are preventable. However, the combination of an aging population and a significant increase in hypertension, obesity and diabetes can lead to unprecedented growth in many types of brain disease.”
According to data reported in the 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, the US Report and the American Heart Association global data:
Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of death among all neurological disorders, including stroke. Women die from dementia every year, due to the higher prevalence of older women compared to men. Women accounted for 66.7% of dementia deaths in the United States in 2022. Over 6.9 million people in the United States live with Alzheimer’s disease. Analysis of Medicare data reported in the update estimates that by 2060, the prevalence rate will be over 13.9 million.
It is also reported in the statistics update:
Around the world, nearly 57 million people suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia in 2021, an increase of 45% since 2010 and a 160% increase over the past 30 years (1990-2021). For comparison, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease has increased by 33% over the past decade and 111% over the past three decades, with the increase in global deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia even more than that of cardiovascular disease. It doubled from $38.6 billion in 1996 to $79.2 billion in 2016. Spending on Medementias was one of the top 10 medical expenses in the US in 2016.
“The burden of brain damage is high. Dementia as a cause of death is growing faster than any other disease, such as heart disease, a cause of death worldwide. Paradoxically, the cause of death increases as other conditions are treated better, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and dementia as a cause of death,” Elkind said.
“We should be able to do the same thing about brain damage and promote brain health using many of the same tools and information that have helped us succeed in cardiovascular risk factors over the past few decades and help to alleviate the burden of heart disease.”
Elkind, following the American Heart Association’s Life Essential 8™, said it is beneficial for brain health as well as for heart health. These include four health behaviors and four health factors identified as important measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health.
Health Behavior: Eat Better Health Behavior: Eat Behavior: Take Healthy Sleep Factors: Managing Metric Factors: Control Cholesterol Health Factors: Managing Blood Glucose Levels: Managing Blood Pressure
“The American Heart Association is committed to advancing brain science through innovative research that helps scientists contribute the causes and contributors of cognitive impairment and dementia, particularly those related to heart and vascular health,” Elkind said.
“In addition, we can support individuals and communities in thinking about brain health in a more positive way, not just in terms of lack of disease. We can see how we can optimize brain function and include positive cognitive traits such as creativity, adaptability, resilience, and empathy.”
He said the association’s continued commitment to better understand how brain health affects brain health and overall health is even more important as brain health deteriorates.
“When people are asked what health conditions they are, they are most afraid of aging, so dementia is at the top of the list, surpassing cancer, heart disease and stroke,” Elkind said.
“It’s important as a society and as an individual, we understand and create the changes that are necessary to improve health outcomes from brain disease and, more importantly, to hinder them from the first place.”
About this research news on brain health and longevity
Author: Kathy Lewis
Source: AHA
Contact: Cassie Chair – Aha
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
