geneva with dementia cases set to soar the world health organization presented tuesday its firstever guidelines for reducing the risk including healthy eating regular exercise and cutting out tobacco usethe number of people living with dementia is expected to explode from approximately 50 million today to 152 million by 2050 the who said in its reportin the next 30 years the number of people with dementia is expected to triple who directorgeneral tedros adhanom ghebreyesus said in a statement stressing that we need to do everything we can to reduce our risk of dementia the un agency said that a healthy lifestyle appeared to help keep cognitive decline at baythe scientific evidence gathered to draw up the guidelines tedros said confirm what we have suspected for some time that what is good for our heart is also good for our brain dementia is caused by a variety of brain illnesses that affect memory thinking behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activitiesaround five to eight percent of people over the age of 60 are afflicted with alzheimers disease and other forms for dementiathe disease inflicts a heavy economic burden on societies as a whole with the cost of caring for people with dementia expected to rise from an estimated 818 billion in 2015 to 2 trillion by the middle of this century who saidthe largest increase in cases over the next three decades will be seen in low and middleincome countries where overall population growth is the highest who said warning that many healthcare systems will face significant challengeswho said there were a number of nonmodifiable risk factors for dementia such as age and family historybut it stressed that while age is the strongest known risk factor for cognitive decline dementia is not a natural or inevitable consequence of ageing at the same time we do know that there are some risk factor for dementia that we can actually modify dr neerja chowdhary of whos mental health and substance abuse division told reporters in genevathe agency said its new recommendations could provide the key to delaying or slowing cognitive decline or dementiathe guidelines point to a range of lifestyle choices that appear to heighten the risk including physical inactivity tobacco use unhealthy diets and harmful alcohol usemedical conditions like hypertension diabetes high cholesterol obesity and depression are also associated with increased risk of developing dementia who saidthe who guidelines recommend that adults adopt a balanced mediterraneanstyle diet quit smoking avoid drinking too much alcohol and watch their weightthey also suggest that cognitive training can help stimulate the brain and ward off dementiaand they hint that an active social life could also be beneficial pointing to studies showing that social disengagement can place older individuals at increased risk of cognitive impairmentwho acknowledged though that there is not enough scientific evidence that increased social activity actually reduces the risk of developing dementia