What if you could assess your risk of developing dementia or having a stroke as you age without medical procedures? A new tool named the Brain Care Score, or BCS, may help you do just that while also advising how you can lower your risk, a new study has found.
The 21-point Brain Care Score refers to how a person fares on 12 health-related factors concerning physical, lifestyle and social-emotional components of health, according to the study published December 1 in the journal Frontiers in Neurology. The authors found participants with a higher score had a lower risk of developing dementia or having a stroke later in life.
The physical components included blood pressure, cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c and body mass index, while lifestyle factors included nutrition, alcohol consumption, aerobic activities, sleep and smoking. Social-emotional aspects referred to relationships, stress management and meaning in life.
The authors cited “the global brain health crisis” as one of the motivators for their work; in the United States alone, 1 in 7 people have dementia, and every four minutes someone dies from a stroke, according to the study.
