A healthy heart supports a healthy brain

February is Heart Month, an opportunity to learn more about the importance of cardiovascular health and the benefits of making heart-healthy choices — including reducing your risk of developing dementia.

Monitoring and managing your blood pressure and heart health with the help of your health care provider can also help protect your brain. You can do many things to improve your heart health and brain health at the same time. Healthy behaviours such as being physically active, eating a variety of healthy foods, avoiding smoking, getting proper sleep and managing stress can help reduce your risk of developing heart disease and dementia.

These same healthy behaviours can also help those already living with dementia slow the progression of the disease and improve their quality of life with dementia.

Vascular dementia & stroke

The most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease is vascular dementia, which occurs when the brain’s blood supply is blocked or damaged, causing brain cells to be deprived of oxygen and die.

Researchers estimate that vascular dementia accounts for 15% to 25% of all dementia cases.

Vascular dementia often occurs alongside Alzheimer’s disease or other brain diseases. Symptoms of vascular dementia include:

• Changes in thinking skills, such as reasoning, planning, judgment and attention
• Changes in abilities that are significant enough to interfere with daily social or work functioning

How does vascular dementia happen?

• A network of blood vessels, called the vascular system, supplies the brain with oxygen. This network allows the brain to function properly.
• If these vessels are blocked, diseased or bleeding, blood is prevented from reaching the brain.
• With no oxygen and nutrients provided by the blood, the affected cells in the brain die, leading to dementia.

Stroke is a common cause of vascular dementia. Recognizing the signs of stroke and acting quickly can make a difference in recovery and in lowering the risk of dementia.

A stroke can:

• Affect your ability to walk
• Cause weakness in your arms or legs
• Cause you to slur your speech
• Cause changes in your behaviour, such as having emotional outbursts
• Impact your cognitive abilities such as memory and abstract thinking, holding conversation and processing visual information

 What you can do to reduce your risk

Treating the risk factors for stroke significantly reduces the risk of vascular dementia:

• High blood pressure (or hypertension) is the single most important risk factor for stroke and vascular dementia that can be controlled
• High blood pressure can be managed through physical activity, eating well and by taking the right medication. Talk to your doctor about the appropriate medication to treat high blood pressure
• Medications may also help control other risk factors for vascular dementia, like diabetes, cholesterol and heart disease

Overall, living a heart and brain-healthy lifestyle is the main way to reduce your risk of heart disease and dementia.