New Dementia Checks Available To See If Your Brain Is 'Ageing Too Fast'
How To Check If Your Brain Is Ageing Too Fast
PA / The Huffington Post UK
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A health pilot scheme offering dementia checks to middle-aged people is to launch over the next 18 months, giving people the chance to take action if their brain is ageing too fast.
The dementia checks will be able to notify patients of how quickly their brain is ageing in a bid to encourage them to adopt a healthier lifestyle, Public Health England said.
Health professionals will be able to calculate a patient's "brain age" based on their weight, exercise habits, cholesterol levels and alcohol intake to see if their lifestyle is affecting their risk of developing diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
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Dr Charles Alessi, Public Health England's lead on dementia, said the "personalised tool" would help middle-aged patients to understand how their lifestyle impacts on their health.
He said: "We are talking about giving people an opportunity early in their lives to be aware of the risk factors that could impair their health later in life.
"This is a personalised way of enabling people to see how those risk factors, like smoking and drinking, are affecting them and gives them the ability to take immediate action if they need to.
"We are not compelling people to do anything but we know people are very sensitive to dementia and interested to see if they can manage their risk and lifestyle better. If people manage their risk factors better they can delay a whole host of issues including dementia, diabetes and heart disease."
He added that the computer-based checks are in the early stages of development but could be carried out by GPs or pharmacists.
If successful they could become part of a system of checks already offered to people between the age of 40 and 74.
The number of people with dementia is expected to double by 2040 to more than than 1.5 million, according to the Department of Health.
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Early Symptoms of Dementia
No Initiative (01 of10)
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At times everyone can become tired of housework, business activities, or social obligations. However a person with dementia may become very passive, sitting in front of the television for hours, sleeping more than usual, or appear to lose interest in hobbies. (credit:John Rensten via Getty Images)
Changes in Personality (02 of10)
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A person with dementia may seem different from his or her usual self in ways that are difficult to pinpoint. A person may become suspicious, irritable, depressed, apathetic or anxious and agitated especially in situations where memory problems are causing difficulties. (credit:fStop Images - Carl Smith via Getty Images)
Mood Changes(03 of10)
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Everyone can become sad or moody from time to time. A person with dementia may become unusually emotional and experience rapid mood swings for no apparent reason. Alternatively a person with dementia may show less emotion than was usual previously. (credit:Mike Chick via Getty Images)
Misplace Things (04 of10)
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Anyone can temporarily misplace his or her wallet or keys. A person with dementia may put things in unusual places such as an iron in the fridge or a wristwatch in the sugar bowl. (credit:Oli Kellett via Getty Images)
Problems With Keeping Track of Things (05 of10)
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A person with dementia may find it difficult to follow a conversation or keep up with paying their bills. (credit:Chris Red via Getty Images)
Increasingly poor Judgement(06 of10)
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People with dementia may dress inappropriately, wearing several layers of clothes on a warm day or very few on a cold day. (credit:Jessica Peterson via Getty Images)
Distortion of Time and Place (07 of10)
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We sometimes forget the day of the week or where we are going but people with dementia can become lost in familiar places such as the road they live in, forget where they are or how they got there, and not know how to get back home. A person with dementia may also confuse night and day. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)
Problems With Language(08 of10)
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Occasionally everyone has trouble finding the right word but a person with dementia often forgets simple words or substitutes unusual words, making speech or writing hard to understand. (credit:Jupiterimages via Getty Images)
Difficulty Performing Familiar Tasks(09 of10)
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People with dementia often find it hard to complete everyday tasks that are so familiar we usually do not think about how to do them. A person with dementia may not know in what order to put clothes on or the steps for preparing a meal. (credit:Anthony Harvie via Getty Images)
Memory Loss(10 of10)
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Declining memory, especially short-term memory, is the most common early symptom of dementia. People with ordinary forgetfulness can still remember other facts associated with the thing they have forgotten. For example, they may briefly forget their next-door neighbour's name but they still know the person they are talking to is their next-door neighbour. A person with dementia will not only forget their neighbour's name but also the context. (credit:Compassionate Eye Foundation via Getty Images)
Hilary Evans from Alzheimer's Research UK said: "We need to encourage people to consider their brain health in the same way they think about their heart health.
"Increasing evidence suggests we can protect against cognitive decline and possibly dementia by adopting a range of healthy lifestyles and dietary habits, much of our risk might be within our own power to control.
"Tools to help analyse brain health must be backed up by the best evidence and should be sensitively employed, but if they can spur positive action to improve cognitive health this would be hugely valuable."