Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

by Lisa Genova

As a rule of thumb, anything that is good for your heart is good for your brain—and for preventing Alzheimer’s. So if you’re already mindful of your heart health, this is good news for your brain. High blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, smoking, and high cholesterol all increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Some autopsy studies show that as many as 80 percent of people with Alzheimer’s disease also had cardiovascular disease. Having increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL, the “good” cholesterol) is associated with a 60 percent decreased risk of Alzheimer’s compared with people with low HDL. Statins have been shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s in people seventy-five or older. You have already learned about sleep’s potential impact on the development of Alzheimer’s, but sleep’s effects are worth reemphasizing here. Chronic sleep deprivation is a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s. I find this conclusion both terrifying (because of the decades I’ve already spent staying up too late, getting up too early, and feeding babies throughout the night) and encouraging—because I can do something about it now. If you don’t yet have Alzheimer’s, that means that your amyloid plaque levels haven’t reached the tipping point. However sleep-deprived you’ve already been in your life is water under the bridge. You can still fight against the daily accumulation of amyloid in your brain by getting enough sleep tonight. If you do nothing else to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s, ...