10
Loading video...
By Lucy Notarantonio
Senior Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Imagine finding out that avoiding just three things in midlife could add more than a decade to your life without dementia. Scientists say that may be exactly the case.
Nearly half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, around 38 million have diabetes, and more than 16 million are living with a smoking-related disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A new study suggests those factors come at a significant cost. Researchers found that having normal blood pressure, avoiding diabetes, and not smoking between the ages of 48 and 68 was associated with nearly 13 extra years of life free from dementia.
Read More on Life
Published August 5 in Neurology Open Access, the study also found that women generally lived longer without dementia than men, regardless of how many risk factors they had. White participants, meanwhile, spent more years dementia-free than Black participants.
...
The findings highlight the combined impact of these common midlife health risks, which were linked to both an earlier onset of dementia and fewer overall years lived without the condition.
"Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade," study senior investigator Dr. Josef Coresh, founding director of NYU Langone's Optimal Aging Institute, said in a statement.
"Discovering new ways to delay dementia is crucial with 42 percent of Americans at risk for developing the condition at any time after age 55."
Tracking Health and Dementia Over Decades
For the study, researchers analyzed data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, an ongoing project that began in 1986 and has followed participants into later life.
Researchers tracked more than 12,000 adults with an average age of 56, examining how three common midlife habits and health conditions could influence their risk of developing dementia later in life.
Participants were followed for an average of 26 years. During that time, 3,008 developed dementia and 5,238 died without ever receiving a dementia diagnosis.
Those with none of the three risk factors lived nearly 13 years longer without dementia than those who had all three. On average, participants with no risk factors experienced around 30 dementia-free years after the study began, compared with 17 years among those with all three.
Differences Between Groups
The researchers also examined whether the impact of cardiovascular risk factors varied across demographic groups.
Among participants with all three risk factors, women lived an average of 18.1 years without dementia from the start of the study, compared with 16.6 years for men.
White participants with all three risk factors lived an average of 19.6 years without dementia, while Black participants lived an average of 16 years dementia-free.
"These results suggest that vascular risk reduction may benefit all groups, but that certain populations, such as Black adults, may especially benefit from targeted prevention efforts," Coresh said.
"Hopefully, these results will encourage people to stop smoking and watch their vascular health closely from age 48 on."
Important Limitations
The researchers stressed that the study does not prove that avoiding these risk factors directly prevents dementia. Instead, it shows an association between better cardiovascular health in midlife and a longer dementia-free lifespan.
They also noted that risk factors were measured only once at the start of the study, meaning any changes in participants' health or habits over time were not captured.
Reference
NYU Langone News. (2026). Avoiding 3 Things During Middle Age Is Linked to 13 More Years Without Dementia. [online] Available at: https://nyulangone.org/news/avoiding-3-things-during-middle-age-linked-13-more-years-without-dementia [Accessed 6 Aug. 2026].
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Kara Dolman and Emma Lee-Sang
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines