And we know that heart disease and brain disease often go hand in hand. The study also found that certain markers of heart disease were also incredibly strong predictors of brain disease. For instance, people who smoked in middle age had a 41% higher risk of developing dementia than non-smokers. “Diabetes raises the risk almost as much as the most important known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” Gottesman said. The same is true for heart disease.

Source: Forbes February 23, 2017 13:18 UTC