Don’t want to try new things? An early signal of dementia and what you can do

Dementia is a real risk to everyone. If you have a strong family history or test positive for APOE gene, you are at an increased risk. We at Biohackr Health see many people coming in when they are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s asking, “What can I do to lower my dementia risk?”

Below I will summarize some of the other things which reduce dementia risk- exercise, blood sugar control, creatine and muscle mass- but recently I saw a study that you can predict who is going to have dementia a decade ahead of time by a habit. That habit was a decline in openness to experience.

WHAT IS OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE?

Openness to experience means you are open to new things. Going to a new restaurant, driving a different way home, being generally curious (always reading our mind stimulating Biohackr blogs?) which stimulates the brain. When people start to decline things- “I want to eat this meal at this restaurant because I know I like it.” “I’m just going to stay home tonight.” Same schedule. Same places. This is not being open to experiences. There is an aversion to things which require effort. “That sounds tough or too much. I may not like it.” You opt out.

• Do you not like new situations?
• Do you prefer the same routines?
• Have you stopped doing hobbies?
• Do you have reduced motivation or interest in things you used to enjoy?
• Are you more socially withdrawn?

Medical studies are showing that this is a sign of mental rigidity, and this reduced willingness to try new things is associated with preclinical dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia.

This may be accompanied with increased neuroticism or decreased conscientousness.

STUDIES

JAMA Psychiatry published a study out of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which tracked personality over 36 years. Findings?

• All cause dementia had steeper decline in openness and had lower baseline openness
• The rate of change in openness was the trait most clearly associated with those progressing to dementia.

Department of Geriatrics, Florida State

• People with all cause dementia had steeper decline in openness.

Study of APOE4 patients found openness decreased significantly more in people transitioning from cognitively normal to impairment on testing.

• Decline in openness resembles behavioral rigidity seen in later dementia
• Meta analysis of prospective samples (N= 30K) confirmed lower openness associated with increased dementia risk.
• Being broad minded, curious, and imaginative were found to be PROTECTIVE across two longitudinal cohorts.

WHY WOULD OPENNESS AFFECT DEMENTIA RISK?

There are a few theories. One is that being open means you are more engaged in brain stimulating activities. This builds brain reserve and better cognitive function. The “use it or lose it” idea seems to be supported.

There is a “differential preservation hypothesis.” This hypothesis is that lifelong intellectual engagement buffers you against age related brain changes. This is that if you build a bigger, better base, as you age, even with the loss you function better as you started with more.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

If you see someone in your world start to withdraw and are narrowing their world, know this may be a sign which tends to happen a decade ahead of visible dementia. It does seem from some of the studies that this is something you can partially reverse. Being broad minded and curious was found to be protective in two longitudinal studies.

BRAIN HEALTH AT BIOHACKR HEALTH

The brain is so important to healthspan. Living long isn’t as good if you aren’t able to mentally be part of it. There are many ways to mitigate this, some of which have well studied science (muscle mass, blood sugar control) and some which are more experimental (Like EBO2).  This is a lot of dense information and too much to summarize in one blog. For the studies, read the blogs. We continually update with new information.

Below are links to our website on how we at Biohackr Health help to test and treat these areas.

• Exercise
• Blood sugar  blood sugar panel test   — Continuous glucose monitor — Diabetes blogs
• Building muscle/ Creatine  Buy our Biohackr German Creatine  –  Blogs on muscle and dementia
• GLP  Page on medical weight loss — GLP lowering dementia blogs
• Estrogen  Hormone testing — Bioidentical hormones  — Blogs on estrogen and dementia
• Testosterone  Hormone testing –– Blog on testosterone and dementia
• EBOO  EBO2 information page  –  Blog on EBOO and dementia

Read our blogs DEMENTIA STUDIES. Many of the ways to help aren’t a test or a drug- they are lifestyle habits, just as this blog shows being open to new things is protective. Reading this blog and learning *might* have protected you just a bit.

MEDICAL REFERENCES

12.

Apathy and Functional Impairment in the Course of Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia.

JAMA Network Open. 2022. Zhu CW, Grossman HT, Sano M.Observational