Avoid dementia: eat an apple, read a book

British and French researchers studied 1,433 healthy people aged over 65 living in the south of France, who underwent cognitive tests at the start of the study in 1999-2001 and again two, four and seven years later. Here's what they found:

"Reduction in the incidence of dementia over the next seven years would be maximised by the elimination of diabetes and possibly depression. Increasing crystallised intelligence and consumption of fruit and vegetables also seem to have a potentially high impact."

Achieving those results could mean that almost 40% of those who are expected to be affected by the condition in the future avoid it.

Some specifics:

• Increasing the involvement of people of all ages in education, especially literacy, would on its own bring about an 18% drop in the number of expected new cases of the disease over the next seven years.
• Eliminating depression and diabetes, and improving the general intake of fruit and vegetables, would lead to a further 21% fewer people succumbing to the condition.

And this matters because:

A Medical Research Council (MRC) study found that patients in their sixties whose condition is diagnosed by a GP typically live for an extra 6.7 years, while those whose dementia is detected as part of screening during a research study tended to have a life expectancy of 10.7 more years. And yet up to two-thirds of people with dementia never receive a diagnosis and, as this research implies, many of those who do only do so in the later stages.

I can't remember where I put my apple, so I'm depressed and I think I'll just have me a jelly doughnut.