How Your Height Influences Your Health Risk
QHHL 
Mar 05 2020
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0 QHHL
Dementia is a growing threat in the modern world. And as it turns out, there’s an unexpected measurement that could influence your dementia risk.
Getting older is hard for everyone. Even if you stay relatively healthy, your body and your mind will change in ways you might not expect. For many people, some of these changes can be very negative. And that’s particularly true when it comes to the mind. Dementia is a terrifying disorder that affects people seemingly at random. But it turns out, that there’s an unexpected health risk factor that could influence your risk of this disease.
Dementia is the name used for a cluster of disorders that are related to the mind. It’s an overall term that covers a range of medical conditions. These conditions are all characterized by abnormal brain changes. These changes affect language, memory, problem-solving and other thinking skills. And as these changes worsen, they will affect daily activities, behavior, relationships, and emotions.
Alzheimer’s is one of the most common forms of dementia and accounts for 60-80 percent of cases. Another common form is vascular dementia, but there are also several other less common disorders.
It’s estimated that around 1 in 6 women and 1 in 10 men who live past 55 will develop dementia. And at the moment, 47.5 million people worldwide are living with this condition.
At this stage, there is no known cure for dementia. The best strategy is management, and this can be wholly inadequate for sufferers. However, an even better strategy is prevention and that’s where your height may come in.
Your height is a component of Body Mass Index (BMI) and is linked to other health concerns such as cardiovascular problems. And a new study has indicated that it may be linked with dementia as well.
The study followed 666,333 men between 1939 and 1959. Over that time period, 10,599 of the participants developed dementia. But there was an interesting connection found between dementia risk and height. The researchers found that every 2.4 inches over the mean height was linked with a 10 percent reduction in dementia risk. This link didn’t significantly reduce when confounding factors were removed.
At this stage, there’s no explanation for this link. It seems likely that it may be due to environmental factors such as early education levels and intelligence. This may create a kind of cognitive reserve that has protective properties against dementia. However, this is just a theory and can’t be supported at this stage.
There’s obviously nothing you can do about your height. This is an unchangeable fact. But that doesn’t mean you can just ignore this health risk. Dementia is a serious disorder that’s better avoided if possible. That means it’s important to calculate your risk of developing it and staying alert for warning signs.
Using your height to help calculate your risk will make your calculations more accurate. And if you’re at high risk, then you need to examine yourself regularly for warning signs. The earlier you catch signs of dementia, the more effective the treatments can be. So, monitor your cognitive functions using one of the many tests available. And if you notice signs of trouble, see your doctor immediately.
You should also work to build a cognitive reserve by:
This information isn’t meant to scare you. Instead, it should encourage you to act early. This means building your cognitive reserve to protect your brain and staying alert to warning signs of cognitive decline. You should also make sure that you seek out professional help as soon as you think there could be a problem. Because early intervention is always best with this frightening condition.
If you’re concerned about a health risk, try using HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Tags: health risk, dementia