Correlation between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline.

The number of people suffering from dementia in the world is progressively increasing due to the expansion of the geriatric population in which this clinical condition is more frequent. The appearance of a variable degree of cognitive decline up to full-blown dementia does not, however, represent the inevitable fate of those who age, as the studies conducted in the centenarians clearly indicate. Indeed, the age-specific incidence of dementia has progressively decreased in many geographical areas, probably due to an improvement in lifestyles and health care. In fact, a growing number of scientific evidence shows how chronic exposure over the course of life, starting from young adulthood, to various risk factors-arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, tobacco smoke, sleep disorders-contribute significantly to the development of cognitive decline and dementia in the course of senescence. These risk factors, in fact, can trigger and amplify the various neuropathological mechanisms underlying the development of decline, progressively reducing the functional reserve of the brain. Although definitive evidence deriving from ad hoc intervention studies is not currently available, it is legitimate to assert that the early control of cardiovascular risk factors can represent today the most effective tool for the prevention of dementia.