Summary: New research underscores that maintaining optimal brain health—vital for preserving cognition with age—is closely tied to cardiovascular wellness. The findings show that dementia and other forms of cognitive decline share many of the same modifiable risk factors as heart disease, indicating substantial potential for prevention by managing diet, physical activity, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.
Following evidence-based guidance such as the American Heart Association’s Life Essential 8™—eight core measures designed to improve heart and brain health—can substantially lower the risk of dementia. Experts say adopting these heart-healthy habits in everyday life offers a practical public health strategy to help curb the growing global burden of cognitive disorders.
Key Facts:
- Shared risk factors: Dementia and heart disease are linked by common, modifiable risks including poor diet, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.
- Rising global burden: Worldwide dementia cases have increased by 160% since 1990, outpacing the rise in cardiovascular disease.
- Prevention opportunity: Applying the American Heart Association’s Life Essential 8™ can protect brain health and reduce the likelihood of dementia.
Source: AHA
Although the average adult brain weighs only about three pounds, it governs thinking, movement and emotion—and remains one of the body’s most complex organs. As life expectancy rises, more people are living into ages when cognitive decline and brain disorders become more common. Fortunately, many contributors to brain aging are modifiable.
Optimal brain health means the ability to learn, reason, remember, move and manage emotions across the lifespan. Many harmful habits—an unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, tobacco use and poor sleep—often begin in childhood or adolescence and compound over time, increasing the chance of cognitive decline in later life.
“We now know that many of the same health risk factors that cause heart disease and stroke also contribute to declines in brain health,” said Mitchell S. V. Elkind, M.D., M.S., FAHA, a neurologist and former American Heart Association volunteer president who currently serves as the Association’s chief clinical science officer. He emphasizes that, like many cardiovascular conditions, most brain disease is largely preventable.
Key statistics from the 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics report, published by the American Heart Association, highlight the scale of the challenge:
- Alzheimer’s disease ranks as the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and is the leading cause of death among neurological disorders, including stroke.
- Women account for a larger share of dementia deaths, driven in part by greater longevity; in 2022, females represented 66.7% of U.S. dementia deaths.
- More than 6.9 million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease; Medicare-based projections estimate this number could more than double to 13.9 million by 2060.
Global data report similarly alarming trends:
- Nearly 57 million people worldwide lived with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in 2021—a 45% increase since 2010 and a 160% increase since 1990. By comparison, cardiovascular disease increased 33% over the last decade and 111% over the past 30 years.
- Deaths from Alzheimer’s and other dementias rose nearly 195% since 1990, outpacing the 57% increase in cardiovascular deaths during the same period.
- Estimated U.S. healthcare spending on dementia more than doubled from $38.6 billion in 1996 to $79.2 billion in 2016, placing dementia-related care among the top healthcare expenditures nationally.
Elkind notes that as we make progress against conditions such as heart disease, stroke and cancer, dementia has become a leading and growing cause of death. Because cardiovascular and brain health are so closely connected, the tools that successfully reduced heart disease risk over recent decades can be adapted to protect cognitive function and promote healthy brain aging.
The American Heart Association’s Life Essential 8™ identifies four key health behaviors and four clinical health factors that together support cardiovascular and brain health:
- Health behaviors: Eat better
- Health behaviors: Be more active
- Health behaviors: Quit tobacco
- Health behaviors: Get healthy sleep
- Health factors: Manage weight
- Health factors: Control cholesterol
- Health factors: Manage blood sugar
- Health factors: Manage blood pressure
Beyond disease prevention, Elkind and the AHA advocate for a positive, function-focused view of brain health—one that seeks to optimize capacities like creativity, resilience, adaptability and empathy, not merely the absence of illness. Investing in research that clarifies how vascular health influences cognition will help communities and clinicians design interventions that preserve both quality of life and independence.
“When people consider which health problems they fear most as they age, dementia often tops the list—even above cancer, heart disease and stroke,” Elkind said. Strengthening public understanding of how lifestyle and cardiovascular risk management protect the brain is essential so individuals and societies can take steps that prevent cognitive decline before it starts.
About this brain health and longevity research news
Author: Cathy Lewis ([email protected])
Source: AHA
Contact: Cathy Lewis – AHA
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News