Dr. Majid Fotuhi

What happens to grandparents is about 5% disease and 90% lifestyle factors, medical conditions, childhood environment and so forth.

And that's the whole point.

Now,

The paper was published in a prestigious journal, Lancet, by a group of international researchers, about 40 of them.

And they looked at what factors increase the likelihood of dementia.

And they concluded that 45% of dementia cases in the world

can be prevented by addressing 14 factors.

And those 14 factors include things like diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, air pollution, hearing loss, vision loss, feeling isolated, and poor childhood education.

Now, that doesn't mean that only 45% can be prevented.

Based on the data they had, they came to that conclusion.

For example, it was difficult for them to evaluate the effects of sleep.

the rule of insomnia, which we know is a strong factor for cognitive decline with aging.

Now, I have been seeing patients with memory problems for about 30 years, and most patients who came to see me improved with this 12-week program that I put together

And the program is based on identifying factors that have the potential to shrink your brain and promoting factors which have the potential to grow your brain.

So let me give you an example.

Many studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for cognitive decline through shrinking your brain.

And on average, it's very important to keep in mind, on average, people who have a larger belly have a smaller brain.

Now, just to be clear, doesn't mean that every person who's obese has a smaller brain because

They don't have other risk factors.

So for example, if somebody has chronic stress, that is a major risk factor for shrinking the brain and especially the part of the brain for memory, which is called the hippocampus.