That dreaded “D” Word: dementia. No one looks forward to receiving a dementia diagnosis or being told they are at risk for dementia. But we have reached a point in our understanding of the disease, and our diagnostic capabilities, that we can now predict with some certainty, and at a relatively early stage, who’s at risk- thereby enabling individuals to take steps to lessen their risk while keeping their brains strong. While we continue to have no effective “cures,” the ability to predict risk with some accuracy enables you to take important, protective measures, such as becoming more physically active, adhering to a healthier diet, and enhancing your levels of sleep and social connection.

So, what are some of the latest risk assessment tools and tests when it comes to dementia? Several recent research studies have reported that reasonably brief, online tools can accurately assess your risk for dementia. For clinicians, there is word of a new iPad app developed at Northwestern University that can assess a person’s dementia risk in just a few minutes. While researchers are still working on a version of the app for individuals to use on their own, it’s now available for clinicians to use when concerned about dementia risk. Find out more here. From the University of New South Wales comes a new online tool called the CogDrisk which allows individuals to obtain an individual dementia risk report available to discuss with their clinicians. The results of testing this new tool have recently appeared in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease showing that the tool is effective at predicting dementia risk across different countries and populations. Finally, in a study published in Neurology, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine report on a new exam called the SOMI (Stages of Memory Impairment) that tests your recall of images and ranks your results in a way to assess your risk of dementia. The study appears to show that even those who are cognitively normal can be assessed for future risk just by using this test. For more on this new assessment tool, train your focus here.

There is also new research detailing how your current physical health may yield clues about your subsequent risk for dementia. According to a study published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, signs that you are slowing down and losing strength may be normal aging- or, they could provide clues as to your risk of cognitive decline. In a research study of over 1,000 women, ages 75 and above, over the course of 15 years, researchers were able to regularly measure grip strength and TUG scores (Timed Up and Go) and discern that those who were assessed to have declines in hand strength and TUG speed were 2 times as likely as those without declines to have a late-life dementia event, such as a hospitalization or even dementia-related death. A TUG test involves timing how long it takes you to stand up from a chair, walk 10 steps, and then return and sit down in the chair. These are easy and inexpensive clinical tests, and if they can yield evidence of a dementia risk going forward, it may be valuable to ask your clinician to include them in a regular check-up. As we’ve previously noted in agebuzz posts, grip strength can be a surrogate indicator for cardiovascular problems or more general muscle decline, and now we know it can also be an indicator of future dementia risk. There are ways to improve your grip strength but for our purposes right now, it’s valuable to understand that losing your ability to open jars may be more than just a sign of normal aging. For a more comprehensive checklist of indicators of future risk of dementia, you may also want to check out a brand new book from Johns Hopkins Press, Dementia Prevention: Using Your Head to Save Your Brain.