The biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease are aging and genetic predisposition. That is, all of our risks go up as we get older, and those with certain genetic variants, like APOE e4, are also at heightened risk. But aside from these factors that we can’t control, there are some things that we do in the way of activities and lifestyle, which seem to affect our risk, both for better and for worse. Research has found that different factors are linked to Alzheimer’s, depending on how they influence our neurology, metabolisms, immune systems and cardiovascular systems. The caveat is that while they may not affect whether plaques and tangles accumulate in our brains, they may at least affect the speed with which they do, the age at which they do and our ability to cope with them.
