Lots of research has laid out the ties between the heart and the brain, from how exercise and nutrition affect both organs similarly to how they’re similarly affected by stress and depression. We know that heart disease and brain disease often go hand-in-hand. But a new study, presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2017, finds that one the greatest predictors of dementia down the road is whether one has risk factors for heart disease in the present. In fact, having diabetes in middle age may even rival the gene variant for Alzheimer’s disease in how well it can foretell the onset of dementia in the years to come.
