It’s never too early to start monitoring and measuring cardiovascular and brain/memory functioning. It’s never too early to start a life plan to protect your heart and your brain. Recent results from the Whitehall II study indicate that cardiovascular risk profile in midlife predicts later cognitive decline. Cardiovascular risk was calculated from the Framingham General Cardiovascular Risk Profile (which you can look up online). The Framingham profile includes age, sex, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, and medications for blood pressure.

The Whitehall II study was begun in 1985-1988 and recruited 10,308 civil servants in London. The participants were aged 35-55 at the time. The most recent findings were based on 3486 men and 1314 women who were free of cardiovascular disease at entry into the study and had an average age of 55. Cognitive function (i.e., reasoning, memory, etc.) was assessed upon entry into the study and again after 5 and 10 years. The results indicated that higher cardiovascular risk was associated with an overall decline in cognitive skills in both men and women. Furthermore, cognitive decline was less in those treated with anti-hypertensive medications. These findings continue to reinforce the fact that the brain is tied to the heart. What’s good for the heart is good for the brain.

The good news is that we can all reduce the rate of cognitive changes we experience by early life style interventions if we begin them at least as early as middle age (in our 40s and 50s). Cardiovascular disease has a number of risk factors such hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. We can manage all of these risk factors by first monitoring them over time and secondly by life style – which we control. We don’t start saving for retirement when we are in our 80s. We start early in life. The same principle holds for protecting your memory. Manage your cardiovascular risk. Start today.

I have already put my memory and cardiovascular plan into effect years ago as I have a family history of diabetes and stroke. Rather than taking unproven supplements, I have put the following plan into effect:

• Put together a Durable Power of attorney and Living Will in my early 50s.
• Exercise vigorously at least four times a week and have done s since I was 40.
• Eat healthy foods 80% of the time.
• Monitor my blood sugars.
• Monitor my blood pressure and cholesterol.
• Take anti-hypertensive medications to manage my blood pressure.
• Monitor my short term memory regularly and use external memory aids liberally.
• Get lots of mental stimulation doing the things I enjoy.
• I am working on having better cardiovascular and memory function ten years from now by sticking to my plan.