Are you interested in lowering your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia? We can take actions early in life and as we age that will substantially lower our risks. I recently wrote about a tech device that can lower risks of dementia for some people. In this post, I want to consider a set of medical treatments that can lower dementia risks for everyone.

If you want to lower your risk of developing dementia, it helps to have a clear understanding of the causes of dementia. In considering the causes of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, the most important thing to remember is that there probably isn’t a single cause. Instead, many factors most likely contribute to cognitive declines. The good news is that addressing any of those factors can lower your risks.

Scientists have been studying the link between some diseases and the eventual development of dementia. They’ve found that a variety of diseases increase your risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. For example, I wrote a few years ago about COVID-19 brain fog and how COVID-19 was already contributing to signs of dementia in older adults.

But it isn’t just COVID-19. Other diseases have long-term consequences for your brain. For example, it has become clear that the Epstein-Barr virus (the virus for mononucleosis) increases your risk of developing multiple sclerosis. And many diseases are associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Which diseases? At minimum COVID-19, the flu, some herpes virus infections, and shingles are associated with an increased risk of dementia (Ecarnot et al., 2023; see also Honjo et al., 2009). The........

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