3 things to avoid in middle age could mean 13 more years without dementia, study finds

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG. Older adults who walked at a significantly faster speed than their peers were about half as likely to develop cognitive impairment, according to Dr. Joe Verghese, MD, neurologist at Stony Brook Medicine. Middle-aged adults who manage to avoid high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking can gain nearly 13 additional years of life free from dementia, according to new research led by NYU Langone Health. The study, published in the journal Neurology Open Access, analyzed long-term health data to determine how midlife cardiovascular wellness shapes brain function decades later. Minimizing these three common vascular threats between ages 48 and 68 dramatically postpones mental decline, according to the research. ALZHEIMER'S BLOOD TESTS MAY PREDICT SYMPTOMS YEARS IN ADVANCE, BUT EXPERTS URGE CAUTION "Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these