Local neurologist to discuss preventing dementia in midlife

Preventing dementia begins in midlife, if not earlier.

Dr. Brooke Allen, a board-certified neurologist in the Roaring Fork Valley, is welcoming community members to a conversation about how to reduce risk factors for dementia in your 40s and 50s to minimize if not prevent symptoms altogether as aging occurs. Join her at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 23, at NeuroSpa Willits, 350 Market St. (lower level of the Willits Healthcare Building) for a wellness workshop discussing all things preventative for dementia.

Dr. Allen has been practicing neurology for almost 20 years, a large portion of which involves people developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia. About 12 years ago, she started a clinical research trial company, Mountain Neurological Research Center, that initially started with multiple sclerosis and has evolved to primarily address dementia, as well as new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s.

“What’s fascinating is really in the last 10 years we have started to see some results of trials looking at lifestyle intervention,” she said. “The data is robust — (we’ve seen) over 40% reduction of risk just by addressing some pretty simple things.”

This includes adjusting the amount you sleep, how much you exercise, the food you eat, alcohol consumption, fat distribution, hearing loss, elevated cholesterol and even fewer years of formal education.

“What we can see in this latest decade of research results that have been coming through is that there are many factors that contribute to dementia,” she said. “It’s not just one disease with one mechanism of action. Even more robust than the medications … is the data pointing to lifestyle change. All of these things together work to reduce your risk of developing dementia later.”

And Dr. Allen emphasized that some of “the best data we have” reveals making lifestyle changes in midlife, before the 60s and 70s, is more effective than trying to make those changes later.

“It’s much more exciting and effective to target these things in midlife and either prolong the time it would take to develop dementia or even prevent it from happening completely,” she said. “If exercise were an FDA approved drug, it would be hitting it out of the ballpark in efficacy compared to the drugs we have.”

She noted that the Roaring Fork Valley is already at an advantage by being a community with a high propensity toward exercise. She said the minimal effective target for exercise, according to the data, is only about 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of vigorous exercise.

Having at least two days of strength training per week is also what she called “clinically meaningful” in reducing dementia risk.

One of the challenges many in the valley face, however, is alcohol, which Dr. Allen acknowledged tends to be overused by many locally.

“What we started to see throughout the literature,” she said, “is there’s really no safe amount of regular alcohol.”

And for those as early as 20s and 30s, she said one of the most important risk factors is smoking. Eradicating that habit early is “really going to make a difference long-term too,” she added.

Amid the myriad of other activities, Dr. Allen will also be discussing genetics in relation to dementia, as well as blood-based biomarkers and more.

To learn more about the event, visit theneurospa.com/events/wellness-workshop-dementia-prevention-in-midlife. To RSVP, go to eventbrite.com/e/wellness-workshop-dementia-prevention-in-midlife-tickets-1981961140123?aff=oddtdtcreator.